Which Parenting Style is Most Encouraged in Modern America?

No doubt parenting is the toughest and the lifetime job without any holiday or retirement plan. But by saying that, you cannot ignore your child and your parenting responsibility. Your child behaves the way you treat them or based on your parenting style.

As you know, children are the nation’s future, so your parenting style will affect your country’s future as well. So, while raising children, you should not only think about yourself but also about yur country.

In modern America, which parenting style will be the best has been a hot topic. Everyone wants to have the best parenting style to raise their children to be good citizens in the future, who will always think good about their nation.

There are different parenting styles that you can adopt, but you need to be careful about which parenting system is best for you and modern America.

Apart from choosing a parenting style, it would help to keep in mind that your parenting style can change as your child grows up. Your children’s mental and physical development also depends on your parenting style.

If your parenting technique gets weak, your child might become an irresponsible adult. So you need to choose your parenting style carefully.

What is Parenting Style?

Parenting style is the technique that you use for your child-rearing. The way you behave with your child and respond to their actions depends on your parenting style. Thus, knowing or unknowing, you are adopting some parenting style. Also, your parenting style changes as your child grow up. So when choosing a parenting style, you must know that your parenting style is not static.

Many of you might get confused about parenting practices and parenting styles. Parenting practices fall inside parenting style; it can be said that parenting practices are a minor part of parenting style.

Types of Parenting Style

American research psychologist Diana Baumrind’s parenting style theory is a popular parenting style theory in parenting style theory. Diana Baumrind categorized parenting style into 3 categories at first, but later on, she expanded her parenting style categories into two dimensions and four types, 2 in each dimension. Americans mostly follow parenting style, as mentioned by Diana Baumrind.

Here I have mentioned four different types of parenting styles along with their pros and cons. Do read them to find out which parenting style will be best for you and modern America:

Authoritative Parenting

Authoritative parenting, also known as Propagative parenting or democratic parenting style, is common among families with strict rules, regulations, and boundaries. Despite having boundaries, this parenting style also shows equal amounts of love and compassion. You are supposed to be supportive and affectionate.

It allows children to provide reason and explanation for their actions. Authoritative parents do not take any actions for their children’s wrong deeds without knowing the exact reason for their actions. Even though you listen to your children’s viewpoints, it’s significantly less likely for you to go with their options in this parenting style.

In this parenting style, you expect your children to behave as per their age and grow up to be independent in the future. As an authoritative parent, you try almost everything to build your child’s self-esteem and to be a responsible citizen in the future.

What I most like about the Authoritative parenting style is it allows bidirectional communication. And you, as a parent, will be fully involved in your child’s rearing, which provides little room for having behavior problems among children.

With an authoritative parenting style, you are likely to raise your child to succeed with a good decision-making capability. Hence, it is a positive parenting technique.

Effects of Authoritative Parenting Style

• Have good self-esteem.
• Are usually happy
• Usually are in the best behavior
• Do better in their studies.
• Are emotionally strong.
• Have good social skills
• Less likely to face mental health problems.

Pros of Authoritative Parenting Style

• Children are accountable for their decision.
• Less likely to fall into peer pressure.
• Shows respect to elders.
• Helps to develop leadership skills among children.
• Provides open communication facility.

Cons of Authoritative Parenting Style

• Can be challenging to get involved in your kids daily life if you have a busy schedule.
• Kids can feel their freedom is controlled.
• Likely to develop rebellious behavior.

Authoritarian Parenting

Authoritarian parenting is a parenting style also known as totalitarian parenting. In this rearing style, parents set strict rules and regulations for children. You want your child to be obedient and follow what you say without any questions. There is a one-way communication process in this parenting style, and if children try to explain their viewpoint, they are considered undisciplined.

The plus point of this parenting style is that it is easy to control your tweens and teens and make them self-obedient. You have high expectations from your children, and they cannot make any kinds of mistakes. Your child tries to minimize their error as low as possible. If your kids try to break the rules or try to be undisciplined, they are given harsh punishment.

However, if you follow this parenting technique, you tend to be cold and do not like to be involved in your child’s life. Many parents less prefer this parenting style as it can affect children’s emotions and mental health.

Your child tends to be aggressive and tends to be less attached towards their parents. Children feel they are not loved by their parents, which will make them distant from their parents. They feel you are there to give them punishment and control their life.

Effects of Authoritarian Parenting Style

• Expected to follow the rules without question.
• Can feel shy in front of a mass gathering.
• Might lead to depression and anxiety.
• Challenging to make choices.
• Can have a lack of trust among children, parents, and children.

Pros of Authoritarian Parenting Style

• Can keep children in good behavior.
• Reduces chances of kids being involved in inappropriate behavior.
• Helps to keep kids focused on their goal.
• Make your child responsible.
• No room for argument and discussion among children and parents.

Cons of Authoritarian Parenting Style

• Can reduce children’s self-esteem.
• Make kids dependent on rules and regulations.
• Does not provide flexible rules and regulation.

Permissive Parenting

Permissive parenting is a parenting style that lets your child do whatever they want to do. Permissive parents do not set any rules or laws for their children. Even though you do not set any rules and regulations, this parenting style can be pretty complex.

Permissive parenting is based on the concept “kids will be kids.” It means that you should allow your kids to do whatever they want. Your child tends to be confident and can develop decision-making ability at a very young age.

In this parenting style, you must listen to your child’s problems and help solve their problems. However, in this parenting style, you don’t stop your kids from making mistakes. You do not expect mature behavior from your child but expect them to make their decision by themselves, making this parenting style complex.

If you want to protect your child from being stress-free and help in psychological development, this is the parenting style for you. As a permissive parent, you don’t expect discipline or self-control from your children. This is why many people think permissive parenting makes children feel undisciplined, insecure, and demanding.

Effects of Permissive Parenting Style

• Can have a good bond between parents and children
• Children try to solve their problems themselves.
• High chances of getting involved in inappropriate activities.
• Do not follow the motto of sharing is caring.
• Give priority to your child’s opinion.

Pros of Permissive Parenting Style

• Provides two-way communication.
• Helps to develop creativity among children.
• Provides freedom to your children.
• Gives importance to self-love
• Low chances of conflict between parents and children.

Cons of Permissive Parenting Style

• Low academic performance.
• Can have discipline problems among children.
• Makes children selfish as they think only about themselves.
• Have low social skills.

Neglectful Parenting

The last parenting style that we have is the neglectful parenting style. It is the worst parenting style among all the parenting styles. Neglectful parenting style is also known as uninvolved parenting style. In this parenting style, you as a parent are not involved in your child’s rearing process. All you give your child is basic needs ignoring their secondary needs.

Here, sometimes you might provide a bit of guidance and discipline to your kids, while other times you completely forget about your child. Most parents use this parenting style because of the busy schedule, not because they want to employ this style.

Neglectful parents usually do not set any rules and regulations for their children. This is the reason for your children to lack discipline if you follow a neglectful parenting style. Your child tends to turn into an adult themselves without your significant role.

This parenting style is usually seen among dysfunctional families where parents are abusive, alcoholic, or are facing mental health problems. If you follow this parenting style, your child tends to be less attached to you.

Effects of Neglectful Parenting Style

• Children can have emotional problems.
• Makes children independent.
• Emotional disconnection between children and parents.
• Children are the way they want to be.
• Lacks all the needs they want.

Pros of Neglectful Parenting Style

• Will be able to take care of themselves.
• Can be mature at a very young age.

Cons of Neglectful Parenting Style

• Lacks rules and regulations to make children disciplined.
• Can make your child anti-social.
• Depression is commonly found among children.

Comparison Between Four Different Parenting Style Based on Demanding and Responsiveness

Parenting Style for Modern America

After understanding all the parenting styles, the authoritative parenting style is most encouraged for Modern America. Children are self-confident and emotionally assertive, which makes this parenting style number one choice among American parents. You not only give your limited child boundaries, but you also tend to listen to your child in this parenting style.

There are many reasons for American parents choosing this parenting style, such as children needing to follow the rules and regulations that you have made for them. This will prepare your child to follow all the laws the country has made for its citizens. Likewise, this parenting style can help your child develop a leadership style and focus on their goal. This prepares your child to be the best in the career field.

However, there are people from different ethnicities and cultures in America, so parenting styles can differ based on culture and ethnicity. For instance, most Asian-Americans want their children to do exceptionally well in school and be on their best behavior. Therefore they are likely to choose the Authoritarian Parenting Style.

Conclusion

As I already mentioned, parenting is the most challenging job, and the way you raise your child differs from others. There are different parenting styles available and tips and tricks to raise children. Parents prefer to choose the parenting style that suits them. Also, most of the time, parents like to mix two or three parenting styles to make parenthood easy.

You need to keep in mind that the way you raise your child can affect them in their adulthood. Therefore, choose parenting style wisely to make your child successful in the future.

To sum up, I would like to say that the Authoritative parenting style is most encouraged in Modern America.