Parenting, Styles and Their Effect on Children

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A soccer mom is out shopping for groceries at WalMart. Her four year old girl grabs the Chips Ahoy! cookies off of the shelf and sets them in the cart. The mother, noticing this, asks her daughter to put the cookies back on the shelf. The little girl begins stomping her feet and screams "I want cookies!" at the top of her lungs. Other customers begin to stop and stare, waiting for the mothers reaction. The mother tries desperately to calm the kindergartener down, but as more and more eyes are drawn, the child takes advantage of the situation and launches into a full-blown temper tantrum. After trying everything, the mother gives in. What can this say about her parenting style? There are four main styles of parenting, including, permissive, authoritarian, authoritative and uninvolved. Assessing the Styles The mother discussed above is an example of the Permissive Parenting Style. Like the mother, permissive parents often tend to rarely enforce rules or discipline their children. The Permissive Parenting Style is an extremely relaxed approach where parents are generally warm, nurturing and affectionate. However, they are overly accepting of their children's behaviour, good or bad (Positive Parenting Centre). Children often get to make their own decisions and don’t have to live up to any expectations. Parents with this style take on the role of "friends” rather than parents. Permissive parenting can have many negative effects on children. Since there are rarely any boundaries or rules and lack of expectations in a permissive household, children tend to have a lack of self discipline. In a recent study, teens with permissive parents were linked to underage alcohol use; the teens were found to be three times more likely to binge drink than their peers. Researchers also suggest that permissive parenting is linked to other risky behaviors such as drug use and other

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