Raising kids is no child’s play, even though it involves little humans that may seem easy to control.
Parenting can be done with various styles, with each style having unique results, one of which is authoritative parenting.
Authoritative parenting is a type of parenting style that is a rough blend of warmth, limit-setting, and sensitivity.
This parenting style uses positive reinforcement to direct kids while avoiding the use of punishments to train a child.
These kids are less likely to engage in risky lifestyles such as gang violence, drug use, abuse and addiction, delinquency, and other harmful activities.
This is widely used by educated families of the middle socio-economic class, and the result is that well-behaved children who are academically and professionally successful are born.
They are also socially healthy and independent children who can handle stress, anxiety, and depression well.
Parenting Styles
There are three primary parenting styles adopted by people to raise their kids, and they include the following:
Authoritarian Parenting
This parenting style is characterized by setting boundaries, high standards, positive reinforcements, warmth, and non-punitive.
Parents using this approach have high standards and demand them from their kids.
They lay down rules and regularly enforce them, yet they do not use threats or punishments on their kids.
They are very kind and considerate to their kids but are not blindly obedient.
Permissive Parenting
Permissive parenting is characterized by low demandingness, warmth, and nurturing.
Parents with this style are nurturing and warm, do not set boundaries, and let their kids get away with ill deeds.
Neglectful Parenting
Neglectful parenting is an approach parents use that denies a child the warmth, nurturing, discipline, and positive reinforcements they need. Put, children here are neglected.
Authoritative parenting is best because it produces great outcomes for well-mannered and healthy children.
Authoritative parenting will always have you doing the following:
- Consider your child’s feelings before asking for a favor.
- Encourage your children to talk about their feelings
- Try to help your children when they are distressed, scared, or upset.
- Provide your children with the expectations you have for them with reasons.
- Respect your kids’ opinions, and encourage them to express themselves even if they contradict yours.
How Do Authoritative Parents Discipline Their Kids?
You may wonder how authoritative parents put their children in check when they misbehave without using punishments to discipline them.
The mode of discipline used is referred to as ‘’inductive discipline’’.
What is Inductive Discipline?
An inductive discipline is an approach to help kids understand what they do and why they should or should not do certain things.
This helps the kids grow up becoming more empathic, kind, and helpful.
It also helps prevent kids from being aggressive and reckless as they age.
The following are tools of inductive discipline:
Shaping Behavior Through Reasoning
This is done by explaining to the kid why certain things should be done in specific ways or why certain things should not be done.
Once you make your kid understand why and how things are done, even behind your back, the kid will not defile your rules.
For instance, explaining to your children why they should not take what doesn’t belong to them is a good step in the right direction. They would continue with this mindset even in your absence.
Emotional Coaching
Inductive discipline keeps your kids’ behavior in check, even when emotions are involved.
Using inductive discipline on your kids will help them understand that even when they feel strongly about something, they can’t use their emotions as an excuse to do wrong.
Emphasizing Empathy and Concern for Others
Saying things like ‘’Now that you have hurt your brother/sister/ friend, how does that make you feel?’’ would make the child recognize the guilt in making another person feel bad, thereby developing empathy for other people’s feelings. A child like this would learn not to be selfish.
Effects of Authoritative Parenting
In using this parenting approach in raising your kids, they tend to be the following:
- Be relatively happy and content
- Independent and self-reliant
- Develop excellent social skills
- Have proper emotional regulation and self-control
- Express warmth and cooperate with peers
- Explore a new environment without fear
- Are competent and assertive
- Achieve higher academic and career success
- Engage more in school activities
- Develop good self-esteem
- Have better mental health
- Handle stress, depression, and anxiety better.
- Make better life decisions.
- They are less likely to suffer from psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, suicidal attempts, delinquency, alcohol, and substance abuse.
- Have competent social skills
- Exhibit less violent tendencies
Why is the Authoritative Parenting Style the Best Parenting Style?
Authoritative parenting has been tagged as the best style of raising kids, and the following are the reasons why:
Nurturing
This is an evident feature of authoritative parenting. Parents who use this approach are described as nurturers because they tend to be sensitive and in tune with their children’s psychological and developmental needs.
According to studies, kids are very responsive to such attitudes towards them and tend to develop an attachment to their parents.
Kids with nurturing parents tend to feel secure with their parents and develop high IQ & EQ, excellent social skills, and competent problem-solving skills.
Responsiveness
Authoritative parents allow the child to be emotionally stable by giving them a sense of responsiveness and autonomy.
Supporting
Authoritative parenting includes parents getting involved in the lives of their kids.
Parents who practice this parenting style show interest in what their children do, showing up for their games, attending their dance recitals, giving support by cheering them during their speeches, and helping with their assignments and school projects.
Open-mindedness
Authoritative parents are very open-minded and encourage open communication between them and their children.
They also encourage their kids to talk and express themselves regardless of their feelings.
This makes the children more outspoken even in the presence of adults, thus helping them develop excellent social skills.
High Standards
Authoritative parents require high standards from their children. Their kids can’t afford to do terrible things, considering how well they have been raised.
Discipline
According to studies, consistently enforcing boundaries set in authoritative parenting is the foundation of a disciplined child.
When authoritative parents set limits, that includes a curfew, no breakfast before chores, no phones during mealtime, and more.
When rules are consistently enforced, they become internalized in them. Soon, without being told, they know what needs to be done.
Non-punitive
Authoritative parents may demand higher standards from kids, but they do not use threats or punishments to enforce or discipline their rules.
Instead, inductive discipline is used to put the kids in check. This makes the children more honest while learning to own up to distasteful deeds.
Authoritative parents are firm and strict, but when disciplining their kids, they are relatively kind.
