Parenting Styles and Child Well-being: Quality over Quantity

Nowadays, unfortunately, some parents think that “parenting style” is all about the time spent with their children. Yet, being physically active and around your children all day doesn’t mean that you are spending and enjoying the true meaning of “quality time” with them. To illustrate, many parents can stay the entire night with their children without showing any interests towards them, while others can only spend a couple of minutes with the kid and still, can manage to have a huge positive impact on their child’s wellbeing and mental health. In other words, the quality of parenting is much more important than the quantity spent with your children. Likewise, it is important to note that the child’s behavior mainly depends on the way they were raised. That’s why parenting styles play a significant role in the child’s personal growth, development, and behavior. To clarify, throughout my researches, I realized that parents are the main characters in the child’s life. They are able to develop the child’s personality and help them to figure out who they really are AKA their identities! Some parents tend to be either authoritative or permissive, while others simply choose to be uninvolved. Anyhow, it is certain that all types of parenting styles have an influence on the child’s academic, social, emotional and psychological development, to the extent that, in some cases, children can suffer from depression and anxiety disorders because of the way they are being raised! As a parent you need to know that being different does not necessarily mean being wrong or bad. We are human beings, we don’t look, think, dress or act alike. We need to start accepting the fact that we are different and we are not expected to act or behave in the same way. We don’t have to think or interpret a situation in the same manner, we are not required to solve a certain problem in a certain way, we don’t have to raise our children the way we were raised, we don’t have to have the same morals or values, we don’t have to share the same opinions, we don’t have to have the same beliefs. Also, we don’t need to celebrate, grief or express our emotions in a certain manner. We don’t have to accept things that we don’t want to just because “everyone else does”. We need to accept the fact that there isn’t a one-size fits-all solution to life. Not all our solutions, ways of thinking, and choices workout for everyone else. Equally, we don’t have to force our children to attend social events if he or she does not want to. We don’t have to force kids to celebrate birthdays, take part of event, play a certain sport, eat certain type of food, study or learn subjects that they don’t like or enjoy JUST because we think it is the right thing to do. Being a parent does not mean being controlling or in charge of our child’s life decisions, choices, and destinies… Remember it is your child’s life and not yours’s. Let your children express their needs, make their own decisions, fail, make mistakes and learn on their own. Listen to your child’s interests and thoughts. Communicate with them. Respect their feelings and opinions. Fulfill their emotional and psychological needs. Validate their feelings. Spend more time with them. Laugh and cry with them. Hug them. Accept them. Love them unconditionally. Let them be who they really are and not who you want them to be!