Your parenting style can affect everything from your child’s self-esteem and physical health to how they relate to others. It’s important to ensure your parenting style is supporting healthy growth and development because the way you interact with your child and how you discipline them will influence them for the rest of their life. Researchers have identified four main types of parenting styles:
Authoritarian
Authoritative
Permissive
Uninvolved
Each style takes a different approach to raising children, offers different pros and cons, and can be identified by a number of different characteristics. People often want to know which parenting style they are using—and which is the best. The truth is that there is no one right way to parent, but the general parenting style that most experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recommend is an authoritative approach.
Learn more about the four major parenting styles, why they matter, and how to tell which one you parent with—and how and when to adapt your approach, if needed.
You believe kids should be seen and not heard.
When it comes to rules, you believe it’s “my way or the highway.”
You don’t take your child’s feelings into consideration.
If any of those ring true, you might be an authoritarian parent. Authoritarian parents believe kids should follow the rules without exception.
Authoritarian parents are famous for saying, “Because I said so,” when a child questions the reasons behind a rule. They are not interested in negotiating and their focus is on obedience. They also don’t allow kids to get involved in problem-solving challenges or obstacles. Instead, they make the rules and enforce the consequences with little regard for a child’s opinion.
Authoritarian parents may use punishments instead of discipline. So, rather than teach a child how to make better choices, they’re invested in making kids feel sorry for their mistakes. Children who grow up with strict authoritarian parents tend to follow rules much of the time. But, their obedience comes at a price.
They may also become hostile or aggressive. Rather than think about how to do things better in the future, they often focus on the anger they feel toward their parents or themselves for not living up to parental expectations. Since authoritarian parents are often strict, their children may grow to become good liars in an effort to avoid punishment.
