Parenting Styles

Which kind of parent are you?

• Dominant Parenting is the extreme use of the intervention style of discipline. This parent wants to ‘control’ the children.
• Smothering Parenting is the extreme use of the interaction style of discipline this parent satisfies every whim of the child.
• Permissive Parenting is the extreme use of the non- intervention style of discipline. This parent believes in allowing the children to ‘do their own thing’ and does not set limits to behaviour.

Bob Myers writes: "Extreme use of any of the three parenting styles produces the same problem; Unhappy, discouraged and irresponsible children. The responsible parent will use a mixture of all three parenting styles and at times should lean a little to one style more than the other, depending on the age of the child and the situation."

He goes on to say: "Teenagers may seem to challenge all your values and beliefs but in fact they only challenge a few. When they challenge one it can be a shock to the system and a parent is faced with justifying a belief or a value that has until then just been accepted and never examined before. You can view the challenge in two ways either as a disaster in which case it probably will become one. Or as the teenager’s contribution to the continuing development of the parent’s thinking, the consequence of which will be much more beneficial to the whole family!"

Finally he says: "Remember:

• Teenager’s can only send parents on guilt trips if parents let them.
• You can change your immediate world by changing your own behavior.
• The child’s ‘faults’ you want to change now may be their strengths in the future."