How would you describe your parenting style?

I would say I follow the gentle parenting style but I’m no saint and will happily admit some days I lose my shit and it all goes out the window 🤣

I have always wanted to have a close relationship with my daughter and I firmly believe this comes with love, mutual respect and respecting boundaries. I can’t ever imagine spanking her even though I grew up with it being done to me.

I love being able to communicate with my daughter. I ask her to use her words to tell me what is wrong or what she wants. I can count on one hand the number of times she has had a full on tantrum and I credit it to us being able to communicate clearly. I love what a caring and loving soul she is and realise that that is down to me and the things I am teaching her.

What I find most challenging though is their energy! It makes me realise how unfit I am lol. If someone could bottle up a toddler’s energy they would make a fortune 😂

I try to understand my child’s needs, I think it’s under the gentle parenting category but I don’t follow any rules I just go with what feels natural. Like if he’s going through the cupboards playing with the tins, it means he’s wanting to do a building activity so il let him work on his need with his building toys instead.

My family all parent different. An example of this is a few hours ago my dad and I took my soon for a walk and when we got to a pavement by the road my dad straight away picked up my son. I told him no, Renn has been taught that if he holds my hand then he won’t get carried (which he hates) so by carrying him when he was following the rules it’s going to make him think he’s done something wrong.
Most difficult thing is when there’s no need I can think of when he’s doing something and he doesn’t understand the word no.
Iv 100% lost my cool with him before, on a bad day I slapped his hand back after he did it to me. All it did was teach him that slapping was ok x

Attachment focused but I’m far from perfect. I try to focus on the repair, rather than the rupture, if I do get triggered and behave poorly. I believe my baby is a human, just like an adult, and should be treated with the same respect. I’m proud of the fact that I was able to breastfeed for over a year. I also proud that I’ve stuck to my guns around not sleep training, despite having the world’s worst sleeper AND that both our families have always sleep trained their children.

Conscious & gentle w a bowl of anxiety and some impatience 🥲 I do a lot of observing while my daughter plays independently! I love that I try to start every day fresh and new. I find it really hard to not be touched out & to find patience. I feel spread thin somedays, and sometimes it feels so easy

I love that we have a more free range approach. She is very independent and fearless because of it. We also do montessori toys, no tv, and natural remedies/herbal/homeopathic medicine. I think the biggest challenge for me is staying calm and keeping my patience.

I haven't looked into any type of parenting styles, I just try to go with what feels natural and I think I've learnt from mistakes that parents I know have made in the past from my 15 years of teaching very young children. I ask others (both parents and non parents) advice and opinions on a wide range of things. I try to be fun firm, fair, loving, observant and listen to what she's telling me even though she can't talk yet. Hopefully this is the right path for us, only time will tell x

Gentle and calm, as much as I can be! I'm also trying to encourage independence as much as I can by empowering the LG to accomplish as much as possible with lots of praise. It helps that he's stubborn, like his mama, and doesn't like help! 😅

I would say I have an authoritative parenting style. I set boundaries but I respect my daughter, I allow her to work through her emotions so she can learn how to manage her different feelings, and I will always respect her & her opinions. Growing up, I told my mother everything because she never judged me, she allowed me to express myself how I wanted (all while making sure I was appropriate & respectful) & she was open & honest with me as well! She definitely set boundaries but she was very warm, caring, understanding, and always on my side! I plan to be the same way with my daughter. I want her to be my best friend but also for her to respect me and acknowledge me as her parent. I don’t plan on being the type of parent who will control her every move but I will definitely set limits because I want her to grow up being respectful to herself, to others, and to the world.

I am not always patient though, and that is what’s most challenging for me (& my husband).

My husband & I don’t always remember that our daughter can’t fully express her needs/feelings/wants in words & sometimes that results in screaming/crying and full blown tantrums/meltdowns. But once we calm down, we can calmly ask her what’s wrong, offer her different things to see what it is that she is desiring. It may be food, water/milk, a hug, a kiss, wanting to be picked up, or just wanting someone to look at her. But we also are trying to teach her positive ways to get out attention because we don’t want to keep rewarding behavior such as her having tantrums or hitting with hugs/food/etc.

I would say somewhere between free range and gentle parenting. I have 3 boys under 10. One with autism and ADHD, one with undiagnosed ADHD and one with nonverbal autism. We do a lot of talking through feelings and explaining consequences. However, the older two are fairly independent. We encourage them to do age appropriate tasks for themselves and they spent most of their time with freedom to choose whatever activity they want (play with toys, read, watch TV etc).