lifestyle

No two parents parent the same way.

Not even when they’re the parents of the same child. And that can cause massive problems nobody mentions in birth classes…

Natasha*  writes…

I am the mother of a 2 year old and his father is quite a bit older than me and a first time dad. I love my husband dearly but he is over the top when it comes to being protective of our child.  We have been together for over 11 years and we have never argued as much as we have since our son was born. Needless to say we have very different parenting styles.I would like to think that I am quite relaxed but my hubby is quite uptight. I can see it in my son’s behaviour already – if he bumps himself when it’s just the two of us, it’s really no big deal and he just shrugs it off, but if hubby’s around then he’ll cry.

I worry that we’re going to screw him up by being too over the top – it’s certainly not how I had envisaged parenting but I find myself going along with my husband’s style because it’s easier than arguing all the time.

I don’t see anything wrong with him scrapping his knee or getting a few bruises occasionally but my husband thinks that’s being a neglectful parent.

What do you do when your parenting styles are very different?

Were your own parents consistent or was one the good cop and one bad cop? How did you use that to your advantage?

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Top Comments

RubyTwoShoes 14 years ago

When I clicked on this I imagined it to be about no two "sets of parents" parent the same way, which is something I have struggled with and therefore quite interested in...
I don't have the same experience as you do with your partner, I feel quite grateful to be on a similar wave length with him re parenting. But when I voiced my view on how we parent as a couple recently (neither of us is the 'primary carer' we are both at home and we both share...and I wrote about it here:http://rubytwoshoes.wordpre...
I got a what I thought to be a very stoney reception....So although not exactly the same issue, I think the title of this post sums it all up - everyone does it differently...


RubyTwoShoes 14 years ago

Holy shit! I cant believe that. You certainly hit the nail on the head when you said he was a complete wanker...