Growing up, my parents were pretty permissive. I've never been grounded, and I was rarely restricted from any activities. In my opinion (and hopefully everyone else's), I've grown up to be a mature, responsible, and well behaved adult. But according to Diana Baumrind's three major parenting styles, I should have grown up to be a rebellious teen with emotional and behavioral problems. Below are listed the three parenting styles, along with the child's predicted behavior that corresponds with each.
• Permissive: Permissive parents are lenient with children, rarely discipline them, and shower them with affection. According to Baumrind, these children should be rebellious and unstable.
• Authoritarian: Parents are strict and give little opportunity for free/play time. They also show little affection towards children. Baumrind claims that these children also have behavioral problems.
• Authoritative: these parents combine the best features of permissive and authoritarian parenting. They are supportive of their children, but set firm rules/limits. Baumrind found that children of authoritative parents are found to exhibit the best social and emotional adjustments.
However, these findings clearly can't be applied to every family, mine included. There are other factors that influence behavior, such as genetics. Also, a child's behavior influences the parenting styles that their parents use. For example, if the child is naturally calm and well behaved, parents may not have to set so many rules. In my opinion, every family should find a parenting style that best suits their child. No one child is the same, so parents must adopt techniques accordingly to keep their children healthy and happy.
Interesting article. I can relate to you. My parents would basically do what ever i want and give me whatever i wanted, with a few exceptions. I grew up to be mature, and a responsible adult. The three different parenting types teach there children in much different ways, and they grow up completely different. but i believe in a lot of cases that the findings are not always clear, or if your parents raise you up in a certain style that you will automatically be a certain way. It was a great article, it would be better if you would explain why you and me didn't grow up to be a rebellious child.