Which parenting style as discussed by Lamanna, Stewart, and Riedmann (2021) did you
experience growing up? If you have children, which style do you relate to most? How can the
Bible be used to inform parenting? Provide a scriptural reference.
I would say my parents used the style referred to as authoritative parenting. My parents were
always very positive to me, and I think being raised by a psychologist also made it a very healthy
way to grow up. She educated my dad, and was very sensitive to my needs, even when I did not
know what I needed. Overall, my parents have always been very supportive and encouraging.
But also they had fair and reasonable limits set for me, and consequences for acting outside of
these limits. They recall that some of the time, I felt so bad for disobeying the rules and was so
hard on myself that they did not need to add consequences. An example was when I showed my
mom an empty chocolate chip bag stuffed in a drawer in my bathroom, and told on myself,
saying that I ate the entire bag! Talking to them helped the guilt, and they could see I did not
need consequences to avoid doing this in the future. Another time, I had taken a tin of chocolate
almonds and hidden it in my bathroom. One morning, my mom found the dog licking it clean,
with nothing left in the tin. She called my school and pulled me out of class to ask how full it
was. Our dog had to go to the vet ER to get treated as both chocolate and almonds are toxic to
dogs. I worked off the amount of the vet bill little by little, doing extra chores to pay it off. Both
situations seemed fair to me.
The combination of my mom being a psychologist and the fact that this parenting style
uses emotional support were helpful and likely why I am so in tune with my emotions nowadays.
The Bible tells us to discipline our children for the good of the children and the family. Proverbs
29:17 says, "Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the
delights you desire" (ESV Bible, 2001). Thus, discipline is considered to be godly, and
something that is good for children and their parents alike.