Sample Essay On Why Parenting Styles Matter When Raising Children

Parenting styles influence the growth of the children in different aspects that is in physical, personality, and in their behavior development. Children raised together and sharing a similar background may adopt different personalities depending on the extremes of their parent behaviors. Children tend to relate and emulate their parents in terms of behaviors, personalities, and characters. There are four categories of parenting styles in terms of how they influence the livelihood of the children, and they include authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved parenting designs. The report establishes different approaches that influence the livelihood of the children, such as corrective techniques, nurturing, interaction, and discipline as well as the guidance measures. The interaction of the parents with their children tends to influence their future in terms of behavioral, personalities, and also physical development. Therefore, the study focuses on elaborating on the reason why parenting styles are critical when raising children.

The parenting styles depend on different parenting practices, the attitude as well as non-verbal expression. Children tend to adopt the parents’ characters and qualities that play critical roles in parent-children relationships. Factors such as societal and life experience are critical in influencing the parenting style and how the parents interact with their children (Dash & Verma, 2017). Children tend to emulate how parents react and deal with different situations as they learn from them as their role models. Parenting techniques tend to vary from one parent to another at the household level and hence leading to the categorization of the parenting styles into four different categories. In this regard, the parenting styles have different impacts on the children and what they become in the future.

Parenting Styles and Impact to Children Livelihood: Authoritarian Parenting Style

The authoritarian parenting style requires children to strictly follow and comply with the parents’ instructions and regulations. Children are supposed to adhere to the stringent regulation failure to that; they face penalties. The parents’ guidelines under the authoritarian parenting style are never questioned, even though they do not reveal the reasons behind their stringent regulations (Sartaj & Aslam, 2010). The relationship between the parent and children is based on strictly following the instruction and guidelines. Parents make decisions on behalf of the youngsters is no clear engagement with the children. The authoritarian parents have higher demands for their children, even though they are not receptive. The parents' expectation is obtaining perfect results without failure or errors, though they offer little if any guidance or directions to their children.

The authoritarian parents punish their children quite roughly and brutally exceeding their wrongdoing. The parents expect obedience and status oriented anticipation from the children without questioning or giving an explanation of their decisions. The authoritarian parents are considered as severe or dictatorial as they never give children a chance to express themselves or negotiate about any issue. The parents are final, and their decisions have to be followed regardless of the situation or condition.

The parenting design of authoritarian tends to leave children with a lot of questions as they do not comprehend their parents’ action. Children tend to develop extreme personality, behaviors as well as physical challenges in their livelihood. Extreme personality and behaviors of the children are clearly observed due to fear development and affected emotional. At the childhood, the youngster tends to sustain physical assaults, suppressed emotions, and self-esteem. Whenever the children try something new, they fail due to fear of failure or engaging new trials. Low self-esteem arises as authoritarian parents do not allow children to express themselves (McKinney, Brown, & Malkin, 2018). In this regard, the children tend to become slow learner as they cannot try something new rather than following strictly the guidelines provided. Contrary to following guidelines strictly, as they grow older, children become rebellious to prove they can handle issues on their own. As most of the decision is made by their parents in their childhood, at adolescent age, teenage tends experiment different issues to prove to the peers of their capabilities and capacity in terms of strength and courage.

Authoritative Parenting Style

The authoritative parenting style requires parents to engage the children as they establish and develop guidelines to be followed. The parents under authoritative parenting designs are responsible as they listen to their children and advise them accordingly (Yeung, Cheung, Kwok, & Leung, 2016). Children can question the parents who clarify terms of reasons and importance of the guidelines introduced. Children are supposed to comply with the parents' decision irrespective of their differences with their parents on the issues discussed. The parents have ultimate authority of the final decision whether the children like it or not, and hence they have to comply. The authoritative parent can modify their decision to accommodate the kids’ demand even though it must be in line with the parents’ final decision. The parents anticipate their children a lot through offering sufficient and needed assistance as well as giving a response to any arising issues or matters.

The authoritative patients are more considerate and hence motivating children in fulfilling their expectations. The parents’ focuses on nurturing children through offering guidance on how to achieve and realize the set guidelines as they are flexible and understanding. The collective techniques of authoritative parents are aimed to encourage children to work harder toward realizing set objectives and guidelines (Yeung et el., 2016). The parents are considered to be assertive though they are not invasive and limiting. Children have freedom of trying various approaches to exercise their rights though within the set guidelines. The parents engage children in different aspects to determine what is right for them and accommodating their views. In this regard, the parent helps in molding self-esteem and confidence of the children by providing them with a chance to express themselves. Therefore, an authoritative parent plays a critical role in providing guidance and accommodating children's ideas in developing guidelines that are followed to details.

The authoritative parent monitors their children to ensure they are within the identified course or limits. The approach ensures the children are making decisions toward the achievement of personal goals but within the identified guidelines. The guidelines by the authoritative parent provide the youngster with the self-regulatory measures and hence enabling children to participate perfectly in their livelihood development. The children get assistance from their parents, who ensure the youngsters are independent, self-reliant, and disciplined. The children are provided room for self-regulation and making a decision concerning their lives but under the watch of their parents. Therefore, youngsters brought up through the authoritative parenting style have free will in making a personal decision regarding their lives though under established guidelines by their parents.

Permissive Parenting Style

The parenting style of permissiveness makes the parents to rarely discipline their children, thinking that they have a valid reason for their actions. The parents relate their youngsters’ actions with the assumption of maturity and self-constraints. The permissive parenting makes the parents extra-receptive and hence giving in into their kids’ suggestions and ideas (Wischerth, Mulvaney, Brackett, & Perkins, 2016). The parents only require being certain of the youngsters' demands, and without much authority, they give in. The parents are considered ultramodern, whereby they work closely with their children and give them much freedom of what they want in their lives. The permissive parenting style requires parents to be forgiving as well as permitting self-regulation with the intention of preventing punishment.

The permissive parenting style ensures the parents nurture their children through engaging in communication. The communication is critical as they understand the youngster's point of view and relate to the nature of guidance they require. Permissive parenting ensures the youngsters comply with their guidance, though they must have consensus about the issue. The guidelines by the parents are flexible as it gives the children the chance to express themselves. In terms of the physical, emotional, and behavioral development, the children of permissive parents have strong personalities and courage as well as high self-esteem and control. The youngsters make their decision easily as they are nurtured to think out of the box and relate to the situation positively. In this regard, the permissive parents ensure the children are within the good development process through regular communication and guidance.

Uninvolved Parenting Style

The uninvolved parenting style entails the parents who are not interested in taking their responsibilities, hence reduced responsiveness and little interaction with the children. The parent only considers the basic rights and fundamental needs without offering full support to child development to maturity. The youngsters lack proper guidance and support from their parents except for issues such as education, food, clothing, shelter, among others. The livelihood of the children is detached from their parents, and hence youngster becoming self-reliant, especially in decision making. The uninvolved parents are never concerned about the structure, policies, guidelines, and assistance to the children and hence making youngsters’ livelihood vulnerable.

At the extreme situation, uninvolved parents tend to neglect their responsibilities and hence failing to attend the basic needs of their children. At this position, the parents’ responsibilities are undertaken by other people such as relatives, well-wishers, and social workers. Children of uninvolved parents have got difficult times as they lack a good relationship with their parents. In terms of the growth and development, the children lack good moral and emotional support from their parents and hence influencing their self-esteem (McKinney et al., 2018). Lack of behavioral guidance from their parents, children tend to face challenges in their youngster age and hence engaging in crime and other vices such as drug abuse. In this regard, children explore life on their own and there are high chances of languishing in poverty.

Parenting Style and their Impacts

Children brought up by authoritarian parents are obedient and competent as they strictly follow the guidelines perfectly. The authoritarian parents ensure the children remain within the given limits without questioning and working toward fulfilling the conditions provided (Dash & Verma, 2017). However, the children of authoritarian parents have reduced social skills and happiness. They feel being limited to explore their livelihood, especially at teenage.

The children of authoritative parents are considered to be joyful, capable, and effective in their livelihood. The authoritative parent offers considerate guidance and guidelines through communicating and engaging the youngster (Wischerth et al., 2016). The children have upright morals, strong self-esteem, and good behaviors. In this regard, the parents are supportive in all aspects, especially in their personal decision making.

Permissive parenting design makes the children lack strong self-regulation and becoming more dependent on their parents. The children tend to face a lot of challenges and troubles in their life, especially with authority. They perform poorly not only in their education, but also in their future livelihood development. They are over-dependent on their parents and hence do not have strong decision-making capacity.

The children of uninvolved parent are characterized by a lack of self-discipline, low skills, and reduced self-confidence. In comparison to their peers, the children by uninvolved parents face a lot of challenges in their livelihood from physical, emotional, and personality development. Therefore, the youngsters turn to other social vices such as drug abuse and crimes due to lack of guidance and support from their parents.

Conclusion

Child development in terms of the emotions, physical and personality, among other aspects depends on the parenting designs. The parents have different parenting styles such as authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved designs with varied impact on child development. Children guidance, support, and communication vary from all the parenting styles and hence setting differences in their emotional, physical, and personality development outcomes. Therefore, parents’ involvement in upbringing of children contributes significantly to their future behaviors and how they face the livelihood challenges, especially in personal decision-making approach.

References

Dash, S. S., & Verma, S. K. (2017). A psycho-social study on the role of parenting and emotional regulation on intergenerational support: An youth perspective. Indian Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(4), 591-597.

McKinney, C., Brown, K., & Malkin, M. (2018). Parenting Style, Discipline, and Parental Psychopathology: Gender Dyadic Interactions in Emerging Adults. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 27(1), 290-301.

Sartaj, B., & Aslam, N. (2010). Role of Authoritative and Authoritarian Parenting in Home, Health and Emotional Adjustment. Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 20(1), 47-66.

Wischerth, G., Mulvaney, M., Brackett, M., & Perkins, D. (2016). The Adverse Influence of Permissive Parenting on Personal Growth and the Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 177(5), 185-189

Yeung, J., Cheung, C.-K., Kwok, S., & Leung, J. (2016). Socialization Effects of Authoritative Parenting and Its Discrepancy on Children. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 25(6), 1980-1990.