Parenting Style in My Family
In my family, my parents mostly used the authoritative parenting style. My parents were always the ultimate decision makers in the family, but children were allowed to express their opinions. We were encouraged to think for ourselves and as we got older, our parents began to allow us more and more personal control over our decisions. We were encouraged to discuss things with our parents and even though we always knew that our parents had the final say and that we needed their permission to do what we wanted, we were able to discuss our preferences and to explain why we thought we were justified in asking for or doing what we wanted. In many ways, it was something like a democratic process where we would discuss the pros and cons of our ideas and our opinions and we would sometimes negotiate over areas of disagreement.
One of the most valuable results of this parenting style was that it taught us children to discuss our positions and to understand our parents' reasoning. That way, we did not resent their decisions when they disagreed with us or when they refused to allow us to do what we wanted to do. Some of my friends had parents who would refuse to even allow them to disagree with them or discuss anything and they told them that they were being "disrespectful" just for disagreeing with their parents about anything. I know that in our home, there were many...
Another advantage we had because of our parent's parenting style was that it encouraged similar types of discussions and resolutions of issues of disagreement among and between my siblings and me. Because we were used to having the chance to be heard and to explaining our positions and opinions in conversations with our parents, we also brought that same style of conflict resolution to matters between us.
Another way that my parents' parenting style fit the authoritarian style was that they maintained very clear rules and expectations for us and they expected us to follow the rules. They would get more mad at us for purposely breaking rules than for doing things that they disagreed with but that we could not have known ahead of time would be criticized. My parents allowed us to make mistakes as ling as we did not purposely try to get away with anything that they knew we already knew that we were not supposed to do. Some of my friends' parents would get just as angry at them whether or not they had any way of knowing they were not supposed to do something and that made me appreciate the way my parents treated our mistakes.
The other reason that I characterize my parents' parenting style as authoritative is that they always emphasized how important it was for…
