How to Choose Your Parenting Style

There are so many things to think about when you have a baby. It can almost be overwhelming worrying about everything, but choosing a parenting style is one of the most important things you can do for you and your baby.

There are so many aspects that are involved in choosing your parenting style, so no one can just tell you what is right and wrong. This is something that both parents should discuss and decide together.

Don’t forget that although there are four parenting styles laid out, your style will be a blend of two or more styles. You don’t have to feel like you are confided to one style and that you cannot change.

The four parenting styles are categorized as authoritarian, permissive, authoritative, and uninvolved. There are many different names for each, but the categories are all the same. Keep an open mind and don’t dismiss any idea too quickly, there is more than one right way to go about this.

Start by discussing how you want to raise your kids. Look over the different parenting styles, talk about how you were each raised, and discuss how you each feel about them. This will give you a great basis for starting to make your parenting style choice.

How you were raised will make an impact on your choice. You may feel like how your parents chose to raise you was very effective and you would like to follow their example. On the other hand you may feel like you didn’t care for how you were parented and choose to find a different method for your family.

The style you choose before or at the birth of your child may not be the style you stick with for their whole life. As your child changes your style may need to adjust to give your child the best parenting. This is also true with siblings, each sibling may respond better to different parenting styles. You will learn quickly, parents need to be flexible!

Watching your baby you will be able to determine their temperament and make a better parenting style choice with that in mind. Different temperaments are easy, difficult, and slow to warm up children. Each temperament, along with the parent’s attitudes, will help to make an informed decision. Their temperament is likely to change as they grow, as will your attitude, which will most likely bring about parenting changes.

Always consider the situation you and your child are in, the age of your child, where your child is developmentally and your child’s maturity level when you are using a parenting style. These will all make a big difference in how you should react.

The most important thing about any parenting style is communication. There should be constant communication between parents as well as between parents and child. Also, make sure that you are comparing each child to the style you should use in parenting. But do not compare children to each other within the parenting style. This can render your parenting ineffective.

Keep in mind as you are looking at your options for parenting styles that they all have effects on your child. Each style can affect their social skills, their independence, self-esteem and confidence. There is also research that shows that different parenting styles affect whether your child will be overweight or not.

Choose wisely, taking all into consideration that needs to be. Make the decision that will be best for you and your child, then be flexible and willing to change when you need to.