As a child I had a very unique experience when it came to parenting. My mom was
absent quite a bit because of mental health issues, and my father was not in the picture much
at all. To make up for all this absent parenting, my grandparents had picked up the slack and
raised my brother and I. It was very hard picking a parenting style because of the various
situations that I experienced. I felt that when I was with my mom that her parenting styles fell
somewhere in-between neglectful and permissive. I didn’t have any particular culture that we
followed it was more so just doing what was n3eeded to take care of my brother and I. Due to
the life that I lived as a child, I believe that it truly drove me to be more of an authoritative
parent. As an adult, I constantly think back to the absence of parents that I had then and live to
make sure that my daughter feels always supported, but also knows that there are rules and
expectations that she needs to follow. This parenting style allows her to have more authority
over the decisions that affect her, and it puts more power into her hands to learn how to handle
control and important choices. It is seen that children with parents who are authoritative tend
to be self-reliant, content, and exploratory. (Martorell, pg74, 2020) I think that for many
generations parents stripped children of having control and any rights to the things that they did
and the decisions they made. “This study has revealed that the authoritative parenting style is
positively linked to young adult children’s cognitive reappraisal capacity. Cognitive reappraisal
means that individuals regulate their emotions by reevaluating the situation, trying to minimize
the emotion impact caused by certain situations cognitively.” (Kang & Guo, 2021) In this study
they identified several positive personality characteristics that carried on with children that
came from authoritative family parenting.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from
it.” (Scofield, 1995) In the bible we see that we are always reminded that by following God, and
we will never be misled, however it easily to look pass how important part our parents play in
our development. In the bible God reminds us as parents that if we equip our children with the
things that they need they will not disappoint us regardless of their age. As a parent we are
constantly worried about how we parent our children and making sure that we are doing what
we need to. Parents will never be perfect, and you will never make all the right decisions. It’s
important to remember that with God by your side you will never walk alone and you will
always have his support to lean on when things get difficult.
References:
Kang, J., & Guo, H. (2021). The effects of authoritative parenting style on young adult children’s
prosocial behaviour: The mediating role of emotion-regulation. China Journal of Social Work,
15(2), 162–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2021.1956760
Martorell, G. (2020). Child. McGraw Hill Education.
Scofield, C. I. (1995). The holy bible: Containing the old and new testaments. Christian Heritage.
