The Pros And Cons Of Permissive Parenting

There are as many parenting styles as there are children, and every child requires a unique approach because every child is a unique individual[4]. However, when the middle ground is removed and one is forced to choose between the two extremes of parenting, a permissive style is more beneficial to a child’s development than an authoritarian style. Children raised by more permissive parents generally tend to grow up to be more creative individuals[2], have a better grasp on the consequences of their actions[1] and maintain better relationships with their parents[2]. Firstly, it is important to draw the line between permissive and hands off parenting. While permissive parents grant their children the permission to do what they wish within the

However, this is incorrect. Natural and logical consequences can be more effective than lectures and other kinds of punishment[5]. A natural consequence would be this; if a child plays with their toys roughly, and smashes one, then they no longer have that toy. Provided the child is not too young to understand what happened and can use logic, they will understand that playing roughly with toys will result in not having the toy anymore. Logical consequences are when a parent creates a punishment to an action which attempts to mimic a natural consequence[5]. If a child is playing with their parent’s phone roughly, letting them smash it is not a good way to teach them a lesson. In this case, a logical consequence would be to take the phone, and explain that if they continue to act this way, they might break the phone. This acts the same way as a natural consequence[1], the child learns that playing roughly with an item results in them not being able to use the phone anymore. An authoritarian parent would have a different response to the above situations, they would give the child a lecture. In both cases, the child would likely cease to play roughly, but the child of the authoritarian parent would only stop because they fear another lecture. The child of the permissive parent would stop because they understand the consequences of their

Parents with less extreme, authoritative parenting styles often do as well. However, when children are pushed very hard to obtain high grades, an interesting phenomenon can occur. They may maintain high grades, and have excellent memorization skills, but when put into a situation requiring creative problem solving, they fail. When forced to think outside the box, there isn’t one right answer, and school doesn’t necessarily teach us that. Perhaps because permissive parents don’t force children to do well in school, and because they encourage independent thought and high self esteem, permissive parenting has been correlated with higher levels of creativity. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates all made fortunes from outside-of-the-box ideas, and also all had permissive