The Harsh Realm Of Gentle Parenting By Jessica Winter

1529 Words7 Pages

Perfect Parenting
All is quiet, a little too quiet. You inspect, and your child grins while finishing their scribbles on your walls. This moment is critical in parenting because you're now in a position where you have to think quickly and fix the issue at hand. So, How should a parent react after their child draws all over their walls? Should they start yelling, removing the crayons, and punishing this behavior? Or they won't do anything and let it continue to avoid a strong reaction. They might even try to understand why the child is drawing on the walls and calmly explain why they shouldn't. There are many different possibilities and ways to handle a circumstance like this one, but which is the right way?
The topic of parenting is very …show more content…

The gentle parent holds firm boundaries, gives a child choices instead of orders, and eschews rewards, punishments, and threats—no sticker charts, no time-outs…." (Winter). Take that scenario of a child drawing on the walls; most are more familiar with the strong reaction of yelling and instant punishment. Although this behavior is upsetting and can set off any parent who wants their walls clean, a gentle parent would not react immediately and try to understand this behavior instead. Instead, they’d get down to the child’s level and ask them why, explain why drawing is okay, just not on the walls, get them a piece of paper, and then have them clean the scribbles off the walls. This method allows the parent to self-regulate, understand their child’s behavior, offer them a solution, and still have a consequence for that behavior. All of that without escalation, yelling, hitting, etc., which are critical points in this method; understanding and natural consequences.
This parenting method is actually called authoritative parenting, but it's been commonly called and known as "Gentle Parenting". This method of parenting is known for how it values teaching children emotional intelligence and empathy by how parents show a level of warmth and understanding towards the child even in moments of bad behavior or tantrums and meltdowns. It became very popular on platforms like TikTok, where many families show examples of how they use it with their children and offers solutions and skills to parents seeking