Every parent is obliged to nurture and love their children. A child needs guidance and direction from every parent starting from the womb until the child understands the meaning of life.
Parenting towards children includes meeting physical needs such as food and drink, and also meeting psychological needs such as affection, a sense of security, and socializing with the surrounding community so that the children can live in harmony with their environment.
Need to know that the children are unique individuals who have their own existence and soul. Also, they have the right to grow and develop optimally according to their own rhythm. Most of the child’s life span is within the scope of the family. Thus, parents’ parenting of the children determines and influences the personality and behavior of the children.
Furthermore, here is complete information about parenting towards the children, recognize the types described in depth by parentingknowledge.com as follows:
Definition of Parenting According to the Experts
Parenting is the work and skills of the parents in raising the children. The following is understanding according to the experts:
1. Jerome Kagam (1997)
He is a developmental psychologist, who defines caregiver as a set of decisions about the socialization of the children, which includes what parents should do in order to make them responsible and contributing as the members of society. So, caregiver here how parents have to explain to the children how children can have high responsibility for everything they do. Also, the family must always support the activities that the children do while it is a good thing to do.
2. Hetherington dan Whiting (1999)
According to Heterington and Whiting, caregiver is the total interaction process between the parents and children, such as maintenance, feeding, cleaning, protecting and socializing children with the surrounding environment. Parents are the best caregivers for their children and the parents are going to apply the best caregivers for their children, and the parents are going to be an example for their children.
3. Gunarsa (2002)
Parental caregiving is a pattern of interaction between the children and the parents that includes not only the fulfillment of physical needs (eating, drinking, clothing, and so on) and psychological needs (affection or feelings) but also the norms that apply in society so that the children can live in harmony with the environment.
Types of Parenting
Not only understanding the definition of parenting, if you want to become a parent, it is also very necessary to understand the types of parenting itself, which are as follows:
1. Authoritarian Parenting
This parenting combines high demandingness/control and low acceptance/ responsiveness. The parents impose the rules, expect strict obedience, rarely explain why the child must comply with these rules, and usually rely on power tactics such as corporal punishment to fulfill their needs.
2. Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parents are more flexible because although they control and use control. However, they are also accepting and responsive. Parents make clear the rules and consistent with them, they also explain the rationalization of parental rules and restrictions.
This means that the parents give their children a reasonable understanding of the rules and restrictions they impose. Although the parents are the ones who make the decisions, but the parents still interact by respecting children’s opinions.
Read also: A more comprehensive discussion about authoritative parenting
3. Permissive Parenting
Permissive parenting is a form of parenting in which the parents give their children as much freedom as possible for the children to organize themselves. Children are not required to be responsible and not much controlled by their parents.
Permissive parenting views the child as a person and encourages the child to be undisciplined and the child is allowed to regulate his or her own behavior. With this type of parenting, then the child gets as much freedom as possible from the family. Parents tend not to reprimand or warn their child when they are in danger, and very little guidance is given by them.
4. Neglectful Parenting
Generally, this type of parenting gives their children very little time and money. Parents’ time is usually used for economic purposes such as work and sometimes they are too frugal with their children.
Depressed parents fall into this category, they tend to neglect their own children physically and psychologically. Depressed parents do not want to give physical and psychological attention to their own children.
The impact of this parenting pattern is that it will produce moody, impulsive, less responsible, unwilling to give in, low self-esteem, often skipping the class and often getting into trouble with their friends.
5. Overprotective Parenting
Parenting where the parents have excessive concern for the child’s life. More than authoritarian parenting, the parents with this parenting pattern are very worried if their children’s needs are not met, afraid and worried that the bad things will happen to their own children.
For example, the parents scold their children if they hang out with the neighbor’s children because they are afraid they will become naughty. The parents do not allow their own children to go camping, for fear of unwanted things happening. This makes the child not free. The child will experience too many restrictions that inhibit their activities.
As a result, they will spend more of their playtime indoors. In the long run long term, these children will be more dependent on others, easily become anxious, lack maturity, and unable to solve basic problems.
