Pros and Cons of Various Parenting Styles

There are four main parenting styles, and each comes with positive and negative aspects. For each child and each situation the weight of positive and negative will be different. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to parenting.

One of the pros of all parenting styles is that if a style can be established by both parents early in a child’s life, then parenting will be much easier. Also, choosing a style that best fits the personality of the child, as well as the parents will give you so much the advantage.

Here is a look at some of the pros and cons of each of the four basic parenting styles. This can help you weigh each and see where your family fits in. Remember that you are stuck with a single style, many families use a blend of two or more parenting styles just depending on the situation.

Authoritarian

Some pros of authoritarian parenting are that the children are held to high standards and accomplish well in school. They are very well disciplined for their lives. This is great for kids with behavioral problems.

Cons include poor life skills, they are always being told what to do and how to do it by their parents. There are no rewards for good behavior, which can make good behavior a challenge for some children.

Permissive

Many children see many pros in this parenting style. Children are given freedom of choice and their parents show them lots of love. They learn to make choices. It helps children that are shy or reserved to break out of their shells.

Sometimes the pros can become cons after a time. Some children when given too much freedom start to take advantage of their parents. The choices they are given to make don’t usually come with consequences, so they don’t really gain much of a sense of right and wrong choices. Some children may become spoiled, selfish, and immature as they grow up. Children sometimes take on an uncaring role as they enter adulthood, not really taking any responsibility for anything in their lives.

Authoritative

This parenting style helps kids to be balanced. They learn to become independent, confident, and cooperative. They also learn important values from their parents. Children in this parenting style learn to make choices and deal with consequences.

The biggest con with this parenting style is that it is not for every kid. For some it is not strict enough and for others it holds too many rules. Some children struggle with making choices and do better when given strict rules.

Uninvolved

There are really no pros to this type of parenting, it is usually not the chosen parenting style of parents that are planning ahead. There are very few kids who will ever benefit from this type of parenting in their lives.

The cons are many, starting with the fact the kids feel neglected. They are always alone in what they are doing and parents are non responsive. Most kids parented like this perform poorly in their lives and don’t assume much responsibility, after all that is all they saw growing up. You will find a lot of rebellious children under this type of parenting.

Choosing the right parenting style will make a huge impact on your relationships, as a family and as parents. Making the decision together and sticking to it together will help ease the stress of parenting, and the kids will notice a big difference.

How children are parented affects their whole lives. It makes a difference with how they socialize, how they perform in school, where they will choose to end up, and it has been shown to affect whether or not they become obese or overweight.