Parenting

Families can not only include a married couple but it can also include children.  Having and raising can be very rewarding as well as can be challenging at times. Sometimes we wonder why should we be parents in the first place because of all the work that goes into each child that is born.  In my family relations class this passed week we discussed why parenting is a good thing...

Why parenting?                                                                             Who benefits?

-Prepares children for life                                                                   -Children

-Practice good attributes such as forgiveness and love                        -Parents

-Bonding and define the family                                                           -Both

-Creates humanity (our relationships make us who we are)                 -Both

-Parenting styles affect a child's development positively or negatively   -Children's development and society

As discussed in the last bullet that there are different parenting styles.  These styles are Authoritarian, Permissive and Authoritative.  

*Authoritarian= "my way or the high way", the parents don't listen to the child, they degrade their children, have a mother/father knows best attitude.

*Permissive= very easy going, wanting to be the child's friend rather than a parent, loose boundaries.

*Authoritative= listens and then corrects the situation or problem, clear boundaries, authority is in the home but not dominating, a healthy balance of authoritarian and permissive parenting styles.

Authoritative is the better parenting style out of the three.  It allows for the children to grow up in a loving room as well as learn a lot of hard but valuable lessons.  A permissive parenting style is not beneficial to a child as he or she gets older and lives out on their own.  Since they have been given everything throughout their lives they will continue to expect everything handed to them without putting any work into it.  They will have a hard time when they realize that the world is not going to give them everything they want.  In the authoritarian parenting style a child's relationships with their parents therefore causing them to be fearful and not trusting in their future relationships.  There is also much more of a possibility of sexual, physical or verbal abuse to occur.

We learn a lot about ourselves during parenting.  We have the opportunity to learn through parenting as much as a child learns from birth to age 18.