What is Gentle Parenting?

Gentle parenting is an approach to raising children that emphasizes positive traits over negative, independence over-dependence, and respect for the child’s natural development. It is sometimes referred to as positive parenting or positive discipline.

Gentle parenting allows children to follow their natural interests, encouraging positive behavior with positive consequences rather than punishing the child with negative consequences. It emphasizes positive communication with the child over punishment or shaming.

Benefits of Gentle Parenting

Gentle parenting promotes respect for a child’s emotional boundaries and physical space. It also emphasizes the parent’s responsibility to respect their child’s needs, feelings, opinions, and wishes.

Gentle parenting encourages parents to use empathy and understanding when addressing a child’s needs. Positive reinforcement is also an important part of gentle parenting. The positive reinforcement technique includes:

• Recognizing good behavior.
• Noticing what the child does right.
• Rewarding them for their efforts.

Gentle Parenting Beliefs

Children are individuals who have their personalities, feelings, interests, schedules, and energy levels. Parents are there to guide their kids in developing healthy habits and coping with tough situations, but children belong to themselves.

Every child goes through the same developmental stages, but they may learn at a slightly different pace depending on their personality, temperament, and life experiences. A one-size-fits-all approach is not effective for all children.

Children go through a process of growing and learning. They may test the limits, but it can sometimes be their way of finding out about their world. Gentle parenting does not tolerate dangerous behavior or injury to a child, but this type of parenting expects mistakes will happen along the way.

Gentle parenting also rejects tiger parenting, which is associated with tiger mothers and tiger parents. Tiger parenting uses fear, guilt, shame, intimidation, or manipulation to control children’s behavior.

Gentle parenting is also different from permissive parenting because it emphasizes the parent’s role in guiding children through life with compassion and support rather than fear and guilt. Permissive parents are more likely to give their children whatever they ask without setting any limits or boundaries. Permissive parents are sometimes afraid of their child’s behavior, so they never discipline them.

Compared to all, gentle parenting is much more effective in the long run.