Thursday, March 05, 2009

Which type of parents are you?

I was reading some articles on parenting and found this interesting. Have you ever thought about which type of parents you belong to? According to Intentional Parents' website, parents are divided into 3 types:

Survival Parents

Some parents operate with a survival mentality; they give their child “whatever” just to make it through the child-rearing years.

The Motive: “If I can just make it through the child-rearing years, I can get my life back.”
The Goal: “Getting the kids out of the house.”
The Method: “Doing whatever is easiest for me.”
The Gifts: Bribes, Threats, TV as a babysitter

Default Parents:

Some parents operate with a default mentality; they give their child what is popular without considering whether it will be the most helpful.

The Motive:“I don’t want my child to miss out on what all the other kids have.”
The Goal:“Making my child happy.”
The Method:“Giving my child whatever is popular.”
The Gifts: Hectic activities schedule, Indecent fashions, Inappropriate media

Intentional Parents:

Our desire as parents should be to operate deliberately and purposefully, giving our children what is useful after carefully thinking through what would be most beneficial to them. That kind of parent is an intentional parent.

The Motive:“I want to give my child what will be best and most helpful for him.”
The Goal:
“Preparing my child for life as a productive adult.”
“Developing my child’s God-given mind and abilities.”
“Protecting my child’s heart.”
The Method:“Purposely spending time with the child and building a relationship so he will learn by watching and interacting with me.”
The Gifts:The Bible, Enjoyable pastimes, Academics, Character, Home skills

After reading the above, I am glad to say that Adrian and I are 95% Intentional Parents type. The other 5% falls heavily on the Default parents type. Hehehe... once in a while a little bit 'kiasu' afraid that Reese might be losing out on something. But after reading about being an intentional parent it has definately reduce the 'kiasu' mentality of mine.

5 comments:

LittleLamb said...

is there such thing as a combination of all 4?? ahahahha

Merryn said...

combination of 3 ler.. :)

Linda said...

somewhere in between the 2nd and the 3rd....

Blessed mum said...

hee..think I'm like you!

A gift from God said...

Dear mummies,

We are human after all mummies... don't feel too guilty about it... hehehe...