In a modern society where there is gun violence in schools, and shootings in malls one would wonder which parenting style is most encouraged in modern America. The way you train your child goes a long way to determine how he or she turns out in the society.
A properly trained child with the right parenting style would become an asset in the society. While a child not well brought up will become problematic and a menace in the society. In America there is a surge in crime and gun violence amongst teenagers and one cannot help but attribute it to the parenting style applied when grooming the child.
There are different parenting style guardians can apply that can either make the child an asset to the American society or a problem to the society. Choosing the right parenting style is the bedrock in shaping and building the child to become notable in the society.
What Is A Parenting Style?
According to Wikipedia “A parenting style is a psychological construct representing standard strategies that parents use in their child rearing. The quality of parenting can be more essential than the quantity of time spent with the child. For instance, the parent may be engaging in a different activity and not demonstrating enough interest in the child. Parenting styles are the representation of how parents respond to and make demands on their children.”
Parenting style is the model a parent or guardian use in rearing their child. The parenting style is unique to different parents and can also be unique to a child. This means that a parent can use different parenting style for all their child. Each child can be reared in a different way from the other. This is mostly common in siblings who have large age gap. Parents tend to use a different approach for their last child compared to their first.
Type Of Parenting Styles
According to Diana Baumrind a clinical and developmental psychologist, there are three parenting style: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive/indulgent. Maccoby and Martin later came up with a fourth one, uninvolved/neglectful style. They are explained below.
1. Authoritative Parenting Style
Authoritative parenting style is a parenting style that involves parents setting rules and boundaries. It is a compassionate and caring style that involves giving the child the necessary tools and training needed for good development.
The authoritative parent is firm while also compassionate. He provides all the necessary care and attention needed for the child’s upbringing while setting up standards and rules that must be followed. When these rules and boundaries are broken there are usually repercussions but not extreme one.
The authoritative parent gives rooms for negotiation and gives conditions for bending the set rules. This parent pays close attention to the child’s activities and good behavior is usually rewarded. The parent listens to the child’s needs and provide the desires that are within reasoning.
An authoritative parent sets good example for the child to follow and expect good outcome in the child’s academics and morals. The parent shows the child love and affection just enough to build the child’s self esteem. An authoritative parent rears the child to be respective, loving, discipline as well as hardworking.
2. Permissive Parenting Style
This is more like a laid back parenting style where the parents lets the child do what they want. These parents are of the opinion that kids will be kids. There are hardly set rules and boundaries in this parenting style. The parents allow the child make choices and decisions that would affect their live.
They make mistakes and are hardly reprimanded. Parents who apply this style of parenting provide all what the child desires even if the child doesn’t need them. They hardly spend the time instilling morals in the child. A permissive parent will take on his or her work than give the child the necessary attention they need.
When the child gets into trouble the parent will make excuses for the child and would never allow the child suffer consequences for their action. Their excuse is that they are kids and cannot be held accountable for their actions.
3. Authoritarian Parenting Style
The authoritarian parent rears his child in a military manner where there are rules and consequences for breaking those rules. There is no negotiations and every rule must be obeyed. The parent requires morals and good behavior from their child at all time.
This parent instill discipline and demands academic excellence from the child. Any mistake the child makes is punished. There is one way communication where the parent dishes out the rules and the child follows. It is a totalitarian parenting style.
In this parenting style every aspects of the child’s life is controlled including those that they can be friends with. When there is a wrongdoing in the child’s circle of friends the child get reprimanded and in some case barred from mingling with those friends.
4. Uninvolved Parenting Style
Uninvolved parenting style also known as neglectful parenting is a style of parenting where the parent is not very involved in their child’s life. This type of parent sometimes provides the basic needs the child require but fails in rearing the child. He is not available to see the child through the huddles of life.
This parent does not set rules and boundaries and is not even aware of the child’s mistakes neither is he there to correct wrong doing. The child’s moral and academic achievement is not monitored and discipline is not instilled by the parent.
An uninvolved parent are usually parents that emanate from broken or divorced home. A parent that has drug or mental issues and an alcoholic. This type of parent can also be a career person who is too engrossed with their work and hardly have time for their child.
This parenting style grooms children who learn to do things on their own and are thrown into adulthood at a very young age.
Which Parenting Style is Most Encouraged in Modern America?
If you are asking which parenting style is most encourage in modern America?. You must first of all know the outcome of the different parenting style. Knowing the outcome will point you to the direction of the best parenting style encourage in modern America.
Let us first talk about the permissive parenting style. A child who is reared with this style will turn out spoilt. In the sense that he or she may not know how to obey laws of the country. Because he was allowed to do as he pleases he might carry out that same attitude when grown.
This child can turn out to be selfish because the world had always revolved around him. Poor communication skill because that was not taught. The child could have low academic performance and might not be very social.
A child that was brought up using the authoritarian parenting style can turn out to be a breaker of law. This is because he has been caged and given too many strict rules that he has rebelled and learnt how to break them. On the other hand he might follow rules so strictly that it becomes a problem.
The child can have low self esteem because he has been scolded all his life. He might not be very social as that was not encouraged while he was growing up. On the good side the child can excel academically. But he might not know how to make decisions on his own as his life has always been controlled.
Uninvolved or neglectful parenting style can lead to adult who have daddy and mommy issues. This can lead to depression and maturity at a very young age. The child can become very angry with the world and anti social. It can also breed children who don’t know laws and how to obey them.
Academically they can suffer and even drop out of school if not monitored. They always say broken children become broken adult, this might become the case with this parenting style.
As for the authoritative parenting style this is the best parenting style for modern America because it rears children that know rules and know how to obey them. They are confident because their parents instilled it in them.
They know how to obey their elders and excel academically. These children are social and can communicate with diverse people. This parenting style breeds children who add to the economy of the country. They are accountable for their decision and doesn’t concede to peer pressure.
The children that comes out from an authoritative home are the pillars and builders of the society. That is why it is the best parenting style most encouraged in modern America.