A Guide to Parenting Styles in 2021 (and Why You’re Already a Good Parent)
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Bringing home our first born from the hospital was surreal. With a brother 15 years younger than me, I had a good deal of experience changing diapers, making bottles, and rocking babies to sleep. But this was different. This one was mine!
He has my DNA and looks like me. The weight of responsibility I felt was enormous. I now had a little person that relied on me to survive.
It wasn’t until our little guy became a toddler, and guiding his behavior was a normal, daily thing, that the idea of my parenting style crossed my mind.
What kind of parent am I going to be? What’s my parenting style?
These days we’ve got a third grader, a first grader, and a three-year-old collectively running the show in our house. My wife and I are in full blow parenting mode all the time whether we want to be or not.
You know what that’s like, right?
- Breaking up fights
- Putting content filters on Netflix, Hulu, cell phones, iPads, and anything else connected to the internet
- Stopping them from grabbing everything off the counter and stove while you’re trying to make dinner
- Reminding them about their homework that’s due tomorrow
- Helping them finish the homework (aka doing the homework…)
- Explaining the meaning of words they heard at school or in the Zoom classroom that you didn’t plan on explaining for a couple more years
- Digging their bike out of the shed when the sun shines
- Reminding them to wear a helmet
- Icing their head when they fall off their bike not wearing a helmet
Does a parenting style even matter? Doesn’t parenting just sort of “happen” as the kids get older? Should you purposely choose a parenting style? How are your kids going to turn out after living their lives under your parenting style?
Let’s start at the beginning.
