Remember that piggy bank you had as a child? In all probability it wasn’t shaped like an actual pig, but you get the drift. We were taught way back then to save a penny for a rainy day, and it might well have contributed to our being finance-savvy in the present day.
If you’re looking to teach your kids early on about money and finances, that piggy bank is a great idea. However, there’s growing research that serves to indicate that your child’s future financial success might be largely owing to your parenting styles in their early years.
Why Parenting Styles Matter when Raising Children
Put in a nutshell, Parenting Styles are constructs used to describe the different strategies parents employ, when raising children. They encompass the behaviors and attitudes of parents, along with the emotional environment in which they raise children.
There is a good amount of research to indicate that there are actual links between parenting styles and the effects these styles have on children. There are even some that suggest that these effects carry over into adult behavior, too.
The Types of Parenting Styles
Here’s a quick overview of the 4 types of parenting styles.
#1. Permissive/Indulgent
As the name suggests, this style is characterized by an overabundance of sensitivity, coupled with low demands.
#2. Neglectful/Uninvolved
This parenting style entails low demands and low responsiveness.
#3. Authoritarian
This type of parenting style is all about high demands, coupled with low responsiveness.
#4. Sensitive/Responsive
This parenting style is characterized by a balanced number of demands and responsiveness. Simply put, ‘Love with limits.’
What Sensitive Parenting entails
Sensitive parenting is the most effective parenting style, and not only for the future financial benefits it provides. This is largely owing to it being characterized by positive engagement, interaction and responsiveness.
The parents that employ this style of parenting show warmth to their children, and consistent interest in their lives. This helps children develop strong emotional regulation and a secure sense of attachment. This in turn provides for that much needed stability in their lives, including financial stability.
Apart from this, Sensitive Parenting leads to children that are less destructive and less likely to get into trouble. Interestingly, this also helps the family be more financially stable. Parents don’t have to pay damages and fines, or even quit their jobs to supervise their children.
Benefits of Sensitive Parenting
It’s only natural, then, that we take a closer look at the benefits that stem from the Sensitive Parenting Style, in an attempt to understand all it encompasses.
Parents get ‘in-tune’ with their children
Parents employing this style of parenting understand the individual developmental and temperamental differences, respond quickly and appropriately to their children, and provide vital encouragement and support to them during times of distress.
It creates a strong bond between parent and child
When you are sensitive to your child’s needs, you automatically foster a strong bond with them.
It helps children develop a sense of safety, trust and attachment
Children need to feel secure in the early years of their lives. A strong sense of security is exactly what sensitive parenting provides them with.
Future Financial Benefits
Last but not the least, children who have been parented sensitively grow into adulthood with happier relationships and better interpersonal skills. All of these lead to favorable financial outcomes. They are better at securing jobs and keeping them. What’s more, they are far more resilient if they end up losing a job. Or when presented with any other challenge, for that matter.
The Drawbacks of Strict Parenting
We haven’t yet answered the question as to whether the nature of our parenting should be ‘strict’ in essence, or not. There are plenty of proponents of the belief that strict parenting makes for better-behaved children, but that is only a myth. Here are some of the reasons why you should not be overly strict with your kids.
- It deprives children of the opportunity to internalize self-discipline and responsibility. While setting harsh limits might serve to temporarily correct behavior, it doesn’t allow your child to self-regulate. The truth of the matter is, no kid likes to be controlled as though by a remote. Self-discipline is important, but it should be based on the internalization of loving limits.
- Based on Fear, it teaches kids to Bully. Children are only going to imitate what they see happen to them in their homes. If you are constantly yelling at them and even hitting them, they will exhibit the same behavior outside home.
- They have a tendency towards anger and depression. Sadly, overstrict parenting makes it clear to kids that a part of them is not acceptable, and that their parents are not there for them to help them cope and manage those difficult feelings that plague them.
Techniques for Sensitive Parenting
Financial benefits are only some of the positives that stem from the Sensitive Parenting Style. Here’s a look at some techniques you should set in place, to effectively employ this parenting style.
Show Love without Condition
Your children have to know that no matter what they do or what happens, you will always love them unconditionally.
Feed that sense of ‘Connection’
Your children want to be connected with you far more than you think. Have direct and open conversations with them every single day, prioritizing ‘relationship over reaction’ and ‘connection over compliance.’
Foster their innate sense of Creativity
Parents must hone that sense of wonder in their children about the world, thereby sparking their creativity. Indulge them in conversations about beauty and even death. A catalyst for competence, creativity promotes resilience in kids.
At EuroKids we are of the opinion that while it is necessary to be strict with children to enforce a sense of discipline, parents need to be careful to keep that strictness in check. More emphasis should be placed on being responsive, ‘hands-on’ parents. That will only make for happier, well-grounded children who will achieve success not only financially, but in all other life aspects.
