For first time parents, it becomes very difficult to choose among the various approaches at parenting that they hear. Some parents are quite strict with their children while others are more laidback. There are all kinds of parents, and to confuse matters more, there is no uniformity in the way their children grow up to be. Why, even within the same house, siblings can turn out to be radically different from each other! So, what form of parenting should you choose?
If you decide to be a very strict parent who puts a lot of restrictions on their children, the whole thing may backfire. Such forms of parenting worked in the medieval periods, when children didn’t know better. They weren’t exposed to anything apart from what went on in their own family and, of course, there was a much-stinted view of family values that let such behavior be accepted. Today’s children are better aware of what goes on around them. If parents are too restrictive, they may possibly rebel.
At the same time, it doesn’t work being a very laidback parent either. Children are going to pick up the wrong habits along the way and it becomes important to you to correct them. You may even have to admonish them at times. Fail at that, and the children may grow up to be wrong and then they may blame you for not showing them the right path.
Though there is nothing like a foolproof method of parenting, it is important to avoid the extremes. Don’t be too strict and don’t be too lenient either. You have to walk on the middle path. You have to show your children what’s wrong when they err and you have to reward them when they do something commendable. This is the form of parenting that you have to emulate. This is the most practical approach, the situation-based approach. You don’t decide in advance how you are going to react. You take things at a time and then you behave as per the situation.
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