Gentle Parenting: The Basics

If you don’t know by now, I’m a huge advocate for gentle parenting and I’m going to explain why I strongly believe it matters so much.

I call it gentle parenting because it’s popular enough by now for most people to recognize what it is; although gentle parenting to me is also a conscious parenting, I’d even consider it an awakened type of parenting where you are exercising re-parenting yourself and creating a new generation. It’s not an all permissive, let-you-do-what-you-want, kids taking advantage of parents. It is actually quite narrow minded to not attempt a beyond understanding of gentle parenting.

Gentle parenting really focuses on deep beliefs that:

A. Children are extremely emotional beings. These emotions are NOT personal. They are not manipulating you.

B. Children are to be treated the way you’d want to be treated.

C. You have a responsibility to guide them through emotions. Explain, name and allow the process of feelings and emotions. Lack of language and understanding of what they feel can translate in all sorts of different behaviors. Some that are less desirable. The less desirable ones should be guided and accepted with gentleness and no shame.

D. What triggers you is a gift. Your trigger is what you need to work through.

E. Praise a child for much more than being a “good boy” or a “good girl.” and explain to a child what they did wrong with much more than “no!” or “go to your room.”

Gentle Parenting is molding your child

into a secure, confident and self loved human being 20 years from now. Calming a tantrum or screaming or shaming or punishing for the convenience of the next 20 minutes of your life, will most likely not provide tools for the next 20 years. Here’s an example: If someone yelled at you, right now, “NO!” your first instinct would be shocked, you would question it and maybe you’d stop but then you’d probably rebel. Anything that is not backed up by explanation and nurture is testable. When parents say, “my child is testing me.” You’re probably right, but he’s also probably not testing YOU, he’s just testing…life, mechanisms, laws of gravity and more.

Gentle parenting doesn’t mean

That you’re the perfect parent and that you won’t “screw” your child up. We are all part of our own cycle from our parents, their parents and so on…and perhaps, comes one day, where you realize a lot of stored feelings you have were not backed up with much reasoning, and there you are, testing. It can go multiple ways, sometimes one of them is NOT becoming your parent. As much as we love them and they’ve done their best, for most of us, it is ok to want and desire to break a pattern. For instance my father is a gentle parent with clear boundaries and my mother was a permissive/screamer. The limitations that I suffer today and still have to work on with multiple layers in my life is astonishing. Did someone screaming at me make me stronger? take less risk? listen more? NO. absolutely not. BUT, in between of the occasional screaming, she trusted me and offered me loyalty to always grant me my independence and never treated me like a “kid.” Mind you, my mother lost a child, my brother. Which is only when her behavior changed, rightfully so. While our trauma with grief and shift of her behavior was very hard to understand, I do wish we had communicated more about these things; that communication would’ve been vital tools for my healing that I eventually had to seek on my own.

I often hear people say “I didn’t have gentle parents,

they screamed and punished me and I’m not screwed up at all.” yet they have high anxious love languages and can’t attract or maintain a healthy relationship. The complex relationships we have with our parents, are the first relationship we get to ever experience. The tools provided during the first years play a gigantic role in handling all of the next and self relationship. We all have healing to do, all on different levels and all with different consciousness/awareness of how much we need to work on and how much we want to work on!

Gentle Parenting is communicating

With your child never doubting that they are beneath to understand. I sometimes get a lot of snarky messages from mothers saying “yeah…well, that doesn’t work with my child.” I’ve even received the “my child is evil, I just spank him.” Well, spanking would definitely not make me nicer either 🙂

Believing that your child behaves a certain way because there is a lack can be very difficult for certain egos to understand. The lack can be completely situational like the arrival of a new baby or even a parent working from home all of a sudden! Which, with this pandemic, I’m sure some of us are experiencing. The lack doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent, it just means that there’s listening and observation to do. Either way, you are doing a wonderful job and that should be your chore belief.

Gentle parenting is staying calm

when a behavior is triggering you; You are their guide: What do they need? what are they expressing? are they annoying you, ask yourself why? are they slamming the table with their hands? ask to hold it. Are they throwing a ball in the living room like wanna be Michael Jordan? ask them to kick it like Beckham. Do they not want you to speak over them while they are crying? wait it out and be present with them. Do they need a hug and pressure on their arms to regulate? Did you explain why you don’t want them to do something? did you refrain from screaming or saying NO without explaining?

There’s so many little things that we can do that are very nurturing and yet setting clear boundaries and standing your ground.

Remember to ask questions, to thank them, to praise them for what exactly did they do, word it. “You pronounced ball! that’s amazing.” “You recognized the color blue! great job!” “You stopped hitting mommy because it’s ouchy, thank you. You’re so gentle.”

Also, here’s a helpful post on how to handle tantrums, gently and understanding why the word No will not be at your service.

Xo