Effective Parenting

Michael Grose has some great tips and information about the most effective parenting style…The parenting style known as the thriving/authoritative style has been shown to be the most effective method for raising well-adjusted, successful and happy children.

Here are five characteristics of the Thriving (authoritative) style:

1.    Parents set limits and boundaries that expand as kids get older and become more capable.

2.    Parents use consequences and other tools to teach kids to behave well and develop a sense of personal responsibility.

3.    Children receive a great deal of encouragement (comments directed at improvement, effort and contribution rather than directed at their ability) and quality feedback about their efforts and behaviour that helps them improve.

4.    Parents encourage empathy in children by recognising their emotions and giving them permission and assistance to express their feelings and help them resolve relationship problems.

5. Parents put a range of measures in place to develop a sense of generosity of spirit and give and take so kids think ‘we’ rather than ‘what’s in it for me?” This sense of community that authoritative parenting promotes is the real strength of the style.

A parenting style is not necessarily fixed. It changes over time according to children’s needs, our wellbeing and even their ages.  Common sense suggests parents need to be stricter with some children than with others and there will be times when parents need to release the pressure on kids, and adopt a more permissive approach for a time. However, most of us default to a particular style and it would seem that most kids do better when their parents are more ‘thrivers’. To learn more go to Michael’s blog.