Nowadays there is a lot of pressure on parents to provide good parenting because every parent wants their children to be good human beings and also self-confident, but being strict or lenient with children has a negative impact on their personality.
In such a situation, gentle parenting is an effective method, whose main goal is to raise children based on safety, trust, conversation and empathy.
In this article, we will understand in an easy way in Hindi language how gentle parenting actually affects kids,
how it affects their mental health. Read this entire article and adopt gentle parenting so that your children become self-confident, safe and happy.
What is Gentle parenting? And How Gentle Parenting Actually Affects Kids
Many parents often have a question in their mind about gentle parenting. What is gentle parenting? The answer is: Gentle parenting is a parenting method in which parents do not get angry at the child every time, nor is the child punished or reprimanded for every mistake.
The main goal of gentle parenting is to understand the needs of the child, respect their decisions, as well as support their personality.
Gentle parenting or soft parenting has a positive effect on every child. But the question arises that how gentle parenting actually affects kids. For this, we have to understand the following 4 main principles of gentle parenting.
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1. Empathy
The main goal of gentle parenting is to understand the needs and feelings of the child. This means putting yourself in their place. Just as we want someone to understand us, in the same way we should also listen to our child,
support them in their pain or happiness. When parents respect the feelings of the child, the child’s trust starts growing with them,
the result of which is that the child experiences security, belongingness and affection. The same feelings have a positive effect on their personality and also strengthen the foundation of their future.
2. Respect
No matter what the age of the child, every person has a respect. Repeated interference of parents in their every decision has a negative effect on the confidence of children.
Therefore, gentle parenting emphasizes that we should respect the decisions of children, and also guide them when needed, only then children will grow up to be more self-reliant.
3. Consistent discipline
Gentle parenting does not mean punishment or getting angry for every mistake, but it means calmly discussing mistakes, understanding their reasons, thinking about correction with them,
so that children do not repeat the same mistake and learn to understand their responsibilities. The result will be that instead of being afraid or lying,
children will experience that mistakes can also be learned from and thus they will become more confident individuals who are not afraid of mistakes but are ready to correct them.
4. Self-awareness
An important aspect of gentle parenting is also the self-awareness of parents. This means that parents have control over themselves, remain calm,
and remain calm instead of reacting to difficult situations, etc. The effect of this will be that children will also adopt the same peace,
understanding and trust as their parents have with them. Suppose you punish the child for making a mistake, then this will weaken the relationship between you and the child, so try to behave well and control yourself.
How Gentle Parenting Actually Affects Kids
Gentle Parenting is not a new concept, it has existed since ancient times, but now psychology and neuroscience have also supported it, because it has been found to have a very positive effect on children.
A psychological study (Journal of Child Psychology, 2023) has shown that children of parents who adopt gentle parenting for their children become more confident, feel secure, emotionally balanced and problem solvers. The main reason for this is that during gentle parenting,
parents do not adopt cruel or abusive behavior or wrong language or punishment from children, but rather have affectionate conversations with children. Now the question arises,
how gentle parenting actually affects kids. The answer is that it develops the frontal cortex of the brain of children in a better way,
which gives them the skills to control emotions, make decisions and deal with stress. Therefore, children of gentle parenting are more confident and self-reliant.
5 important benefits of adopting Gentle Parenting:
- Children feel more secure. Children feel that their parents are with them in every difficulty.
- The ability to find solutions to problems develops well in children.
- Children’s trust in parents is unbreakable.
- Children have a greater sense of taking responsibility, and they also learn to think for themselves well.
- The relationships of such children are better, pleasant and strong, which also affects their future.
In short, gentle parenting is not just a parenting style; it lays a foundation for children’s lives that can have a lifelong impact.
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Effect of Gentle Parenting
1. Effect on emotional development
A) Increase in self-esteem and self-confidence: When children commit mistakes and are scolded or beaten, the children start considering themselves as incapable and weak.
On the contrary, if parents adopt the process of gentle parenting, they will not get angry at the child, but will explain his mistake to him lovingly.
This will not hurt the feelings of the child and he will become wise. He will not make that mistake next time. By doing this, the child’s self-esteem will increase.
B) Improvement in emotional regulation: In gentle parenting, parents try to make children self-confident and wise, so they do not put much pressure on the child, so the child learns to control anger, fear and anxiety in a better way.
C) Empathy and compassion develop: According to research, it has been found that children mostly do the same things that they see their parents doing. If parents treat children with love, then the child also treats other people and parents with respect and sees others with sympathy and compassion.
2. Effect on Mental Health
A) Chances of anxiety and depression are reduced: Research has shown that children who are brought up with strict discipline and negative feedback in childhood start suffering mentally and due to mental pressure
they are not able to perform well in life, but during gentle parenting, mental pressure and stress on children ends, as a result of which mental health remains better and the child performs well in every task.
B) Improvement in self-control: During gentle parenting, parents behave very well with children and explain to them lovingly,
so children try to correct the mistakes and learn to correct the mistakes themselves, due to this they learn to take better decisions in future and also learn self-control because they start learning to correct mistakes.
3. Effect on social skills
A) Helps in building healthy relationships: Children who are raised by gentle parenting are more intelligent than other children and are better at understanding emotions and they also
maintain a strong relationship with their family because their parents always respected them, that is why they also respect their parents and siblings.
B) The art of communication develops: During gentle parenting, parents behave well with children, so children do not fear parents and tell them all their problems and this helps parents think a lot for their better future.
Many people think How gentle parenting actually affects kids. The very good answer to this is that during gentle parenting,
children communicate well with parents, which gives parents a chance to understand the feelings of the child, which is very important for the upbringing of the child.
4. Effect on Intellectual and Academic Performance
A) The art of communication and creativity develops: In the process of gentle parenting, children are given the opportunity to express their feelings, as a result of which they learn to communicate better with anyone and become more active.
B: Improvement in self-discipline: During the process of gentle parenting, children learn to correct their mistakes, which also strengthens their self-control and they start taking their education and career seriously.
5. Better personality development
How gentle parenting actually affects kids Children who are raised through gentle parenting are usually calm and completely self-controlled and are also sensible because they think about everything carefully and then take the right decision. They maintain patience even in difficult situations and do not panic and treat everyone with respect.
Problems with Gentle Parenting
Lack of Patience
Sometimes it happens that when a child makes mistakes, parents want to punish him and make him realize his mistake at the same time, but this does not happen with gentle parenting. The child is explained his mistake with love, which may take time.
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Need For Constant Effort
During gentle parenting, parents have to maintain constant communication with children, but many times parents are worried or busy with some other work, so maintaining constant communication is a challenging task in gentle parenting,
especially when the child makes a mistake and the mood of the parents is already bad, in such a situation it becomes very difficult to communicate with the child in a soft manner.
There are many such problems with gentle parenting, but to become a good parent, you have to control your behavior and emotions, only then you will be able to become a responsible parent.
How to Adopt Gentle Parenting?
There are many benefits of adopting gentle parenting and there are many challenges too, but still we suggest you to adopt gentle parenting, but you must be thinking that how gentle parenting actually affects kids. We have told you many main reasons for this above.
Now we want to tell you how you can adopt gentle parenting with children in everyday life. For this, you have to understand the feelings of children and when they make mistakes, explain to them how to avoid mistakes.
If they are happy, then join them in their happiness. If the child is very angry about some topic and is not talking properly to anyone, then try to communicate with him and love him.
Ask him what happened to you, how can I help you. If you want your child to learn to do this, then you also have to be patient in front of your children and if you want your child to respect everyone, then you also have to respect him.
Do not restrict children too much in every activity, so that children will become self-reliant and learn to take the right decision.
Gentle Parenting Vs Permissive Parenting
| Gentle Parenting | Permissive Parenting |
|---|---|
| Gentle parenting is a parenting style that is based primarily on respecting the child’s safety, trust, communication, and emotions. | Permissive parenting gives in to every demand or need, which has a negative impact on their life. |
| Emphasis is placed on calmness, correction of mistakes, and responsibility. | The child is not allowed to realize his mistake and is told that it is okay. Due to which he is unable to learn responsibility or good decision making skills. |
| Lays the foundation for becoming a better person. | Children become dependent, becoming victims of imbalance or dissatisfaction. |
| Parents play the role of providing good guidance. | Parents are limited to just being together or agreeing to every need; they do not focus on the lives of the children. |
| Children become more confident, responsible, empathetic, mentally strong and have better relationships. | Children become unbalanced, anxious, dissatisfied, dependent on others and face difficulties in becoming self-reliant. |
Conclusion
To be a good parent, you should adopt gentle parenting and raise your child well. Good parents often adopt the process of gentle parenting and their children do well in life.
It is possible that you too are adopting the process of gentle parenting but you may not know about it.
You have to maintain patience during the gentle parenting process and understand the feelings of children. In this way, the process of gentle parenting can be successful.
FAQs About Gentle Parenting
1. What is gentle parenting?
If you have a question in your mind that what is gentle parenting, then you can understand it as a method that focuses on discipline, but without scolding.
Q2. Does gentle parenting mean giving children the freedom to say anything?
No, gentle parenting does not mean this at all. It has boundaries, but those boundaries are not strict, but are related to love and communication and in this the child is given a chance to express his feelings but no thought process of the child will be accepted, this is the principle of gentle parenting.
Q3. How to understand gentle parenting definition in easy words?
It can be understood in this way that “a parenting in which the feelings of the child are respected, and instead of beating or scolding, an attempt is made to explain to him with love, so that he learns the art of becoming responsible and self-confident.
Q4. Are soft parenting and gentle parenting the same thing?
Many people consider soft parenting and gentle parenting to be the same, but in soft parenting the boundaries can be weak, while in gentle parenting, along with love, boundaries are also set, which are not violated and in doing so, the parents can also ask the child the reason for this, whereas in soft parenting, the parents may ignore this mistake of the child.
Q5. What are the benefits of gentle parenting?
Its benefits are that – children become more emotionally intelligent, become self-confident and form a strong bond with the parents and such children are also more self-confident who are not afraid of the circumstances of life.
Q6. Is scolding wrong in gentle parenting?
In gentle parenting, it is considered better to explain to the child rather than scolding because it helps in understanding the child. The child reflects on his mistakes, whereas scolding the child every time for his mistake makes the child harsh.
Q7. What is the effect of gentle parenting on the child’s future?
Children who grow up in a gentle parenting environment are better at emotional maturity, empathy and decision-making.
Q8. Does gentle parenting work for all kids?
Does gentle parenting work for all kids? It depends on the personality of the child. But most research shows that this approach is effective in the long-term and it brings a big change in the lives of children.
Q9. If gentle parenting is so good then why don’t all parents adopt it?
The answer is very simple, adopting gentle parenting is not easy. It requires time, patience and self-control. That is why many times parents stick to the old methods because parents have to always be active to follow the rules of gentle parenting.
Q10. Does gentle parenting work even if the child makes mistakes again and again?
Does gentle parenting work in tough situations? Yes, but it requires a lot of patience and consistency because you cannot use violence properly, you can only explain it to him with love.