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Everything You Need To Know About Authoritative Parenting And Find Out If It Is Good Or Bad?
Parenting is a huge responsibility and we are aware of the ups and downs parents go through while handling different situations related to their children. Sometimes you cover up their mistakes while there are times when you are the first one to scold them for their deeds.
Authoritative parenting is one of the four among Baumrind Parenting Styles. The other three are Authoritarian or discipline, Neglectful or uninvolved, and Permissive or indulgent.
Parenting is an all-time job you love doing because your child means the world to you. If you are worried about which parenting style to opt for so that your child can learn and grow without being tensed and worried about your way of handling them, you have come to the right place. We shall be discussing all the details related to the Authoritative Parenting style and we shall conclude if you can go and opt for this parenting style to take better care of your young ones.
Presenting you a detailed guide on authoritative parenting. Do read thoroughly without skipping to understand better.
What Is Authoritative Parenting?
Authoritative Parenting is basically a parenting style that is characterized by high demands and high responsiveness. As an authoritative parent, you need to pay attention and be responsive towards the emotional needs of your child while maintaining high standards.
The parents in this style tend to set limits and remain consistent in setting or enforcing boundaries in their child. The experts of child development have carried out different researches from the decade and came to a conclusion that the Authoritative Parenting Style is probably the best among all types of Baumrind Parenting Styles.
It is known to produce amazing outcomes in children of various age groups. Different studies were conducted keeping many factors in mind. The results seen in children guided by authoritative parenting are quite impressive. The qualities of children will astonish you.
Qualities Of Child Raised Through Authoritative Parenting
- The children are content and happy.
- They are self-reliant, understanding, and independent.
- Children have developed good social skills.
- They have amazing self-control and possess great emotional regulation capabilities.
- They cooperate amazingly with their peers while expressing warmth towards everyone.
- The children are able to explore different environments without being worried or fearful.
- The children are assertive and competent.
The children Are Likely To Do All Things Mentioned Below
As a parent raising your child through authoritative parenting quite well, you can expect your child who is likely to exhibit these qualities and likely to have:
- Amazing sense of self-esteem and development.
- Achieve great success in academics.
- Engage and put forward their contribution in all the activities at school with confidence.
- The children will possess better peace and mental health and are less likely to go through depression, suicide attempts, anxiety issues, use of drugs or alcohol, delinquency, etc.
- The child will exhibit very low violent tendencies.
- They tend to adjust well in every surrounding you put them to or life puts them.
- They will develop great social skills to interact with peers or batchmates.
Characteristics Of Authoritative Parenting
As a parent trying to raise your child through authoritative parenting you have to keep some things in mind when it comes to authoritative parenting. Following are certain characteristics associated with authoritative parenting that should know before proceeding.
- Always listen to what the children have to convert to you.
- This parenting style is nurturing, warm, and attuned.
- You have to encourage independence in your child while allowing them to remain autonomous.
- Do not demand obedience from the children that are completely blind rather ask and reason with your child on every decision.
- Clear limits should be set when it comes to a child’s behavior.
- Certain boundaries should be always enforced with consistency.
- Do not opt for measures of discipline that are forceful or punitive rather use discipline that is positive and understandable to the child as well.
- Don’t demand your child to respect you in whatever you do, you have to earn that respect through your actions.
Is Authoritative Parenting Style Working For All The Childs?
Many parents have different opinions on their kids. If you are wondering if this parenting style will work on your kid or not? you need to apply it at least once and you will love the results as it does not matter what temperament your child possesses, this tends to work for all the children.
In fact, if you have an opinion for your child that he or she is extremely difficult. Do not worry, as among all temperaments studies and tested, this parenting style has done extremely well for children who are difficult from those children who are relatively easy to handle and guide. Easy kids are already obedient and stick to the guidelines you set while difficult kids are more likely to break the rules and norms you have set for their benefit.
One question that comes to your mind is that all children are different and they require a parenting style that is unique and relevant to them, in such condition will Authoritative parenting be useful for your kid? The answer is a simple YES! Although the kids have different behavioral statistics, You need to parent your child according to a “goodness-of-fit”
What is “Goodness-of-fit“? It simply means a balance between a child’s temperament and the parent’s responsibility, practices, and parenting attitude. With this balance, the child will naturally flourish and remain in the best state of mind.
Opposite of goodness-of-fit is poorness-of-it. When the parenting is in poorness-of-fit the child will suffer. You have to know the difference between both along with differences in the parenting practices and parenting styles.
Parenting style is an emotional climate that involves raising children by their parents whereas parenting practice refers to specific actions that are undertaken or employed by the parents in their parenting style to flourish their child. Authoritative parenting is not a practice, it a style of parenting that is probably the best for your child.
The parents are definitely advised to adopt this parenting style but the practices should be different based on how your child behaves and your child’s temperament. Although there are no set practices for this parenting type, it consists of several spectra of various parenting practices. All these practices are based on one similar technique that we all know by now. It’s the “High Demadingness and High responsiveness” Principle.
Look at the picture mentioned above. In the diagram within the “high responsiveness and high demandingness,” a parent can opt for a practice that is less demanding but somewhat high nurturing for their child.
If you are parenting a different child having some other temperament you can choose a practice that is demanding but has less nurturing. Both these practices are a part of authoritative parenting styles. There are many styles, practices, etc depending upon temperament. For example.
Style Of Parenting (High Responsiveness): It refers to supportive, warm, and accepting parenting.
Practices Involved in this: Cheering, smiling, and hugging are parenting practices associated with high responsiveness.
Style of Parenting (High Demandingness): It means keeping high limits and standards with kids.
Practices Involved in This: Requiring the kid to show manners, get amazing grades, and do chores are practices associated with high demandingness.
Why Is Authoritative Parenting the Best Among All Four Types?
As you have read above, there are many factors and approaches associated with a parenting style. To understand all the information in a deeper way, let us discuss each component associated with Authoritative Parenting in detail.
Nurturing
Authoritative parents are often sensitive, nurturing, attuned, and supportive of all the emotional and developmental requirements of the child. It has been shown by the research that the kids that have responsive parents usually develop a secure and safe attachment. Children that have secured attachments are well protected from any developments of internal problems like anxiety or depression. The child tends to develop cognitive competence, emotional control, and great problem-solving skills.
Responsiveness
For a child’s successful future, emotional regulation is important and lays the foundation of a child’s behavior. Autonomy support and responsiveness from father or mother provide the children an opportunity that helps them immensely to develop amazing skills related to confidence and self-regulation.
Supportive Nature
Another great quality that makes authoritative parenting one of the best styles of parenting is the supportive nature of parents. The parents are much more involved and intrigued with their child’s schooling by monitoring and volunteering the child in various help related to their homework and co-curricular activities. Involvements of both the parents or any one of them in activities of the child help the child achieve more in their adolescence which is great.
Open-Minded
Parents having authoritative parenting styles are collaborative as well as open-minded than other parents who opt for different styling of parenting. Parents often use open ways of communication with the child. To foster the individuality of the child, they use explanation and reasoning while making a conversation with their kids. These Parents help in modeling prosocial mode of behavior which can be internalized by children later. Due to amazing parenting, the children grow up having brilliant social skills.
High Standards
It is important to demand high standards from the kids as it often helps the kids to remain in balance and gives parents an opportunity to have a check on their kids using high standards.
Discipline
The study conducted in Baumrind’s plan found and concluded that parents who used the Authoritative Parenting style to raise their children were more consistent and successful in enforcing certain limits good for the kids as compared to other parenting styles. One of the most crucial or we can say the main element in maintaining good discipline is home is consistency. Parents who enforce limits on their children’s consistency have seen that the kids face fewer internal and external issues growing up.
Non-Punitive
It is quite evident that authoritative parents often have high standards but they do not believe in the ideas of punitive punishments for children to enforce discipline with rage. Non-Punitive discipline is the best as it used to enhance and promote honesty of the children towards parents along with prevention in aggressive kind of behavior that causes harm and dishonesty from both sides.
Rather than using punitive discipline, the parents following authoritative parenting uses inductive discipline for teaching their children the behavior that is more likely to promote their growth and give them good manners. Parents are undoubtedly firm while teaching but they maintain kindness along with being firm.
Being strict with children and being mean are entirely different. The authoritative parenting definitely includes the parents being strict at times but they do not push themselves further which makes them appear to mean in front of kids which will put a bad effect on the kids and their beliefs.
Overall you can call authoritative parenting a mix or balance between authoritarian parenting which means too much control psychologically over the children and permissive parenting which refers to too little control on a child’s behavior and temperament. It is between two extreme styles of parenting to achieve brilliant outcomes from the children.
The Bottomline On Authoritative Parenting Style
After reading all the information mentioned above, you might have liked this style of parenting more than the others because as a parent you might want to see your child grow and remain secure with you. It is the best parenting style as it helps in promoting a balance between emotional control of your child, discipline, and allowing discipline.
All you have to do to opt for this parenting style is keep the characteristics of authoritative parenting in mind. Along with good parenting styles and practices try not to be too harsh with the child. Keep a balance, being either too lenient or too harsh with the child makes them uncomfortable. Let your child make some decisions by themselves, if the child is not able to make a decision, help them by considering all the factors associated with that decision.
Have discussions with their child related to their choices, goals, and regular decisions. With attention, time, and flexibility of your needs and your child’s need, this parenting style will become common and easy to follow on both sides.
Treat your child to amazing vacations and spend quality time like a friend that makes the child more honest and loyal towards their responsibilities.
