Have You Been Wondering if Permissive Parenting is the Best Way to Raise Your Little One? Think Again! Guide on How to Change Your Parenting Style (2020)

It is often said that there is no such thing as a perfect parent! But, mind you, if you aren’t aware of the way you interact with your child and discipline them, then it will weigh your child down in his future. For the healthy growth of a child, it is required that he or she is raised well with necessary involvement from parents. Every parent may raise their children differently. However, parenting styles can be categorized into 4 universal groups:

The parenting styles are categorized on the basis of expectations, communication, nurturing, and disciplining style. Nonetheless, you may not fit into just one parenting style, as quite often, parents identify themselves to be a little bit of each category! While the disciplinarian and authoritative styles establish certain rules on kids, uninvolved parenting has absolutely no ground rules set for them.

The Permissive style of parenting is different as it can be described as below:

Permissive parenting has shown better results than the uninvolved parenting method (obviously!). However, permissive parenting outcomes are far less favorable than the other two methods, and hence, is considered not a very effective method, although it has some aspects of positivity that are worth mentioning.

Being relaxed at being a parent is a good thing indeed. But researchers agree that the overly relaxed method of permissive parenting may lead to several adverse outcomes for children. Wondering how? Here are some of the effects seen in children as a result of permissive parenting.

Children raised by permissive parents tend to:

You need to be strict where you got to be and be warm and caring where you ought to! Being warm and nurturing towards your child, simply doesn’t make you a permissive parent, so don’t worry too much if you are! There are other factors also that count. Here are some of the signs that you must watch out for to make sure that you are not a permissive parent.

We suggest that you ask yourself the following questions to identify if you are more of a permissive parent or not.

Well, for the important part - the favorable answer to this question is a “yes”. If you don’t have a routine as yet, probably you fall under the permissive parenting category. In order for the child to get the appropriate sleep that he deserves, it is crucial that he/she goes to bed on time. Better sleep makes them feel physically better. The idea of fixing a routine doesn’t only apply to bedtime. You, as a parent, are supposed to have schedules too in order to make the child feel more organized and structured.

So, your child has been sitting and watching tv shows for four hours straight. But you don’t want to stop him from doing so, fearing that he is going to throw a tantrum. Sound familiar? If so, then you better watch out! Permissive parents rarely set limits on anything related to the child, including eating their favourite food unlimitedly. If you don’t set limits now, your child will have issues with his self-esteem in the future. Let the child watch his favourite TV shows for limited hours. Although you can give an exception of an additional hour or so on weekends.

Permissive parents often indulge in bribing their children to get anything done around them. If you are giving your way to bribing your child with a candy bar for doing his homework, then you better stop doing that now! Bribing may work for the time being, but it has destructive consequences on the child.

Kids of permissive parents do not generally appreciate authority and rules. They are seen to have low self-esteem and don’t know how to deal with their emotions. If you rather lenient and always succumb to kids’ demands, they always get what they want. Hence, when faced with a situation that is stressful and unexpected, these children struggle with dealing with their emotions and turn out to be aggressive and adamant.

Since kids are not familiar with living by the rules of the house, they enjoy extreme freedom and flexibility. So, to get things done, you might have to struggle a lot to please them by negotiation to their capacities. As a result, you cave in to this manipulation and keep repeating this for every single thing and every single day!

While being a caring and over supporting parent, you may be providing enough care and nurture that is more than what is needed by your child. Nevertheless, this may not result in the best of results, ‘as kids being kids’, try to utilize this affection of yours more often. What is needed now is for you to make some changes in your parenting style, all the while being supportive and caring as you are. But how to do this? Take a look at these suggestions for you to work on.

Sometimes, it is seen that parents don’t fall into one precise category. You, as a parent, may have characteristics of the four different parenting types.

The four different parenting types are:

So, if you oversee yourself, you might notice that you have a bit of all the parenting styles, and it is ok to be so! However, researchers claim that one parenting style is the most favorable for a kid’s upbringing. And that is the authoritative style. So, it is advisable that you follow more aspects of this particular parenting style and try to inculcate more attributes from it.