Different Styles of Parenting

What is parenting? Is it trying to guide your child in the right direction by enforcing rules

that you think are adequate? Or is It letting your kids guide there own lives and hope they

turn out to be something in life? These might sound like opposite, but many people agree

with each one. These styles are referred to as authoritarian, democratic and permissive

parenting. I was raised by a democratic parent, basically there were certain rules that I

had to follow in my house but I got to express my feeling and tell my mom how I felt

about her rules and other issues. I think that this was a very smart style of parenting, and I

will someday use it to raise my own kids.

By interviewing my mom about her parenting styles, I learned about the views of a

democratic parent. Growing up she never had a say in what she could or couldn't do. She

wasn't even raised by her mother; her stepmother, who often abused her physically,

raised her. So she wanted to raise us different and give us the childhood that she never

had. She feels that discipline should be met but not to the point of abuse, when the child

gets old enough to understand the concepts of life then corporal punishment should not be

enforced. "There are many challenging parts of parenting", said my mother, "but the

hardest part is trying to raised a child in this world full of violence and hatred, you can

only hope that they will make the right decisions. On the other hand there are many

rewards, like your child growing up to successful in life". Many kids