Effective Parenting Means Being Flexible 

Be rigid with your parenting style and you can raise a troublesome child. You want to give your child everything he needs to succeed. Sometimes this desire to raise the “perfect child” gets a little out of control. A parent believes a certain style of raising a child is what should be adhered to, and that parent never sways from that belief.

That’s a shame. Your child is not a robot and you aren’t either. That means that different parenting styles are going to make sense from time to time. Don’t be rigid. Instead, be more flexible with how you raise your child.

You can read all the recommended parenting guides in the world. You can get more information than any parent ever has about how to raise your child. With that incredible amount of information, you are still going to encounter situations where a particular approach is going to require you to be flexible. Your child’s behavior won’t usually benefit from a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach.

What Parenting Style Do You Use?

There are 4 main parenting approaches. They are …

1 – Disciplinarian

2 – Permissive, Indulgent

3 – Uninvolved

4 – Authoritative

Each of these styles is different. The disciplinarian is not budging. This is a very restrictive and demanding parenting style. Sometimes you have to be strict and let your child know that certain behavior is going to result in strict punishment. However, a rigid, strict disciplinarian type of approach to raising your child can create a lot of negatives when this style is used all the time

The permissive parent is very indulgent. Sometimes you want to give your child permission to fail. A child needs to learn how to fail and then pick himself up, brush himself off, and try again. On the other hand, a parent who is entirely permissive and indulgent all the time is going to raise a child that thinks the world will give them everything simply because he wants it.

Uninvolved parents are simply not around. They’re just not there. There are times when you want your child to learn on his own. But being totally uninvolved in your child’s life is never a good thing.

Then you have the authoritative parent. This is a very nurturing and positive way to raise your kids. You set clear expectations that push your children and when they achieve them, you help them realize even more. The authoritarian parent understands that sometimes they need to be permissive, and sometimes they need to be a disciplinarian.

The authoritative parent develops clear boundaries and allows the child input and communication when these boundaries are set. Most importantly, the authoritarian parent understands flexibility.

While the authoritarian style is agreed upon as the most positive way to raise your children, you need to be flexible too. Don’t adopt a certain policy and then use that parenting style even when you think it’s not correct for the situation. Be flexible. Communicate with your child. Be there. Make yourself available. Then be willing to change your parenting approach to fit a particular situation.