Phil About Parenting

The New Laid-Back Parenting

Erin Ruddy, the author of the article “The new laid-back parenting. Parenting School Years” has given an interesting perspective on the future of parenting. Ruddy talks about how parent’s in this day of age are very protective and helicopter “hover” over their kids any chance of them making a mistake. Ruddy gives a simple yet powerful stance on parenting explaining why parent’s need to let their kids physically and emotionally fall and learn to get back up on their own. As she states, “just because you can do help them doesn’t mean you should” (Ruddy, p. 47). It is debatable for parents to practice more of laid-back parenting within the household and instill responsibility to help children develop into independent adults.

In this article, Ruddy explains how laid-back or free-range parenting is done compared to how society naturally takes to parenting. One research study has found that over-involved parenting may be damaging long-term. She explains the need for parents to let their children learn to be independent, to fail and succeed in result to becoming resilient and confidant. She advises parents to allow their children to contribute by giving them the responsibility of doing chores in a way that makes the children feel respected and empowered.

The author’s main factual evidence supporting her claim was a study done at the University of Mary Washington. They found that over-involved parenting, which can extend into young adulthood, might even be damaging long term (University of Mary Washington, p. 48). This form of evidence was the main source of facts in the article supporting the author’s claim of parenting style. Even though this was a study conducted at a University, the author did not state nor give any specific results from this study. With that said, the relevance and quality could have been stronger if proper-sited results were mentioned in the article. With this study being the only main form of factual evidence...