Currently there are different types of parenting and that allows parents to obtain very important information about child care. Something that until not many years ago was unthinkable, because very specific roles were determined in families. The mother was the person who lovingly took care of the children, who generally grew up overprotected.
And on the other side was the father figure, the strict and stern parent who was in charge of bringing the money into the house, without stopping too long to get to know the personality of the children. Something that has undoubtedly marked the parent-child relationship of parents and children for decades. Because it was very complex to establish relationships between parents and children when the father was the authority figure and the son was someone unknown.
What is respectful parenting?
The main problem with the way upbringing decades ago was that children were not allowed to explore their emotions as individual beings. As if they weren't people with their own abilities, as if they were mere belongings that in many cases seemed like second-class citizens, basically without rights. That's how it was traditionally, but fortunately customs change. Today, parents get involved and children can develop their personality.
Respectful parenting is based on this, in granting children the necessary skills to explore, know and manage their emotions. Tools that will allow them to develop effectively in their environment, through values such as empathy, respect, generosity or the ability to face the adversities of life. Fundamental tools for the future of a generation that can do great things.
Respectful parenting is based on 4 fundamental pillars
- be available to children. But not in an ephemeral way, but to be present in every moment of their growth. Sharing quality moments, without distractions like the phone, because being available means focusing all your attention on the child at that very moment.
- Be accessible. Many parents complain that their adolescent or adult children do not trust them and this is due to an accessibility problem in childhood. When the child has a problem, no matter how minor it may seem, she needs her reference adult to ask her what she needs, how you can help her or what you can do to make her feel better. That is being accessible, what it is not, is responding to a cry with a cutting phrase or without giving importance to her feelings.
- emotional intelligence. The development of emotional intelligence is the key to respectful parenting. Children need to know what their emotions are, in order to be able to identify them correctly and manage them as appropriate at all times.
- Respect the needs of children. In a fast-moving world, the needs of the little ones are often overlooked. What leads them to grow up timid, without a feeling of belonging, with an inferiority complex because they do not feel important to the people who are most important to them.
Ultimately, respectful parenting is based on letting the child explore his own personality and guide him on it so that he reaches the best version of himself. It is not about letting them do what they want, because children need someone to teach them what is good and what is not. But they also need the freedom to develop their personality, explore it and exploit it to find out who they really are.
Only then can they grow and become fully functional adults. With capacity for solve the problems that will arise in life. With empathy to put yourself in the place of others, with respect for all living beings. That is the basis of respectful parenting, a way to help children improve the world through their abilities, instead of making them fit into a world that does not take them into account.