"Unconditional parenting" refers to a parenting approach where love and support are given freely, without any conditions or demands on the child. It emphasizes understanding and accepting a child's feelings and needs, rather than using punishment or rewards to control their behavior.
Full definition
This idea of not using punishment to resolve conflicts is one of the core pillars in the inspiring and radical parenting style
of unconditional parenting.
This is
why unconditional parenting is long term - the open and accepting attitude allows your kid to experiment in order to find himself or herself.
Like attachment parenting,
unconditional parenting states that meeting a child's needs on an individual level is the basis for all healthy relationships.
Alfie Kohn in his
book Unconditional Parenting certainly doesn't hold back in his concerns about the damaging effects of giving children extrinsic rewards or praise to encourage better behaviour.
I love posts like these because, even after
reading Unconditional Parenting or Playful Parenting or whatever, it's hard to condense what I've learned from those books into something I can try to implement in my day to day parenting.
On the other hand, children raised
with unconditional parenting (unconditional positive regard, attachment parenting) are more likely to grow into adults who are not afraid of intimate relationships, are able to think independently, and are committed to good values and behavior because it was modeled to them by people who love and accept them for who they are, not what they do.
Unconditional parenting asks parents to play an active role as care - givers and nurturers and use compassion, tolerance, empathy and full awareness in making parenting and discipline choices.
I would now like to broaden the perspective a bit and talk about the full potential of unconditional positive regard in relation to growth and personal development - of
how unconditional parenting paves the way for what is called self actualized human beings.
According to Alfie Kohn, who as far as I know coined the
term unconditional parenting, says that every form of control is a «doing to» your child in order to get your child to do what you want.
I just
finished Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn, so the de-emphasis on praising wasn't new to me, but I agree with the comments above that the research examples Nurtureshock gave really resonated with me.
Unconditional parenting represents a relational view of parenting where it is understood that children learn through the relationships with the important people in their lives.
However, many current and past parenting experts strongly disagree with her like for instance attachment parenting expert Dr. William Sears,
unconditional parenting advocate Alfie Kohn or the late forefather of child - centred parenting Benjamin Spock.
You can read and learn more about positive parenting, attachment parenting and
unconditional parenting which are all examples of holistic, child centred approaches to parenting.
Unconditional parenting means that even when your kid does something «wrong» or is «naughty» in the old fashioned sense of the word, you do not withdraw your positive regard.
(I'm not going to go into an in - depth discussion about rewards and praise here, but if you're interested in reading about the principle of positive, conscious parenting, you might like these articles
on Unconditional Parenting or Positive Parenting.)
Alfie Kohn's wonderful
book Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason also cites a huge number of studies that explore this research further, and explains the hypotheses of the researchers about why punishment actually impedes moral development.
The philosophy
of unconditional parenting is centred the therapeutic principle of the unconditional positive regard which aims at meeting children with unconditional love, support and full acceptance regardless of how they behave.
This parenting strategy is also
called unconditional parenting and for many people this way of thinking is a real challenge because we're so used to over-controlling everything.
The TEACH tool, the Language Model and the 13 Principles of Conscious Parenting as defined in the book,
Unconditional Parenting by controversial author, Alfie Kohn, are guidelines to refer to and keep in mind when you learning to be more conscious.
As a parent, she considers some of the most inspirational and helpful ideas outside academia being those of Dan Siegel regarding parenting from the inside out, Alfie Kohn
for unconditional parenting, LR Knost for sensitive parenting and Jesper Juuls ideas on building a close, authentic relationship with your child.
Unconditional parenting asks you to create a parenting plan or a family doctrine that supports the needs of all members, to set forth the «rules of the house» - the guidelines that children and parents agree on together about how family members should be treated and how tasks will be divided.
When they witness their parents going through a tough divorce, or saying and doing things that show their parents are no longer in love with one another, kids begin to question
how unconditional their parent's love really is.
I particularly love his book
Unconditional Parenting: Moving From Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under AP Book Snapshots, Empathetic Parenting,
Unconditional Parenting.
Unconditional Parenting is a provocative read backed with a ton of research that ultimately pushes for a paradigm shift in the way we love our children and guide them to become moral people.
I know this is an old post, but I'm reading through Kohn's «
Unconditional Parenting» book right now.
If you'd like to explore the research behind this approach, my favorite resource is the index of Alfie Kohn's wonderful book, «
Unconditional Parenting,» which lists hundreds of peer - reviewed studies that support this view.
... please go on, skim, read, devour, or whatever your mood, temperament or ambition dictates, these pages on parenting experts and parenting styles e.g. positive parenting,
unconditional parenting and attachment parenting.
Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason.
Filed Under: Parenting, Parenting Coach Tagged With: Charlie Sheen, Joe Newman, Parenting Coach, Transactional Parenting, Unconditional Parenting
Filed Under: Parenting, Parenting Coach Tagged With: Alfie Kohn, Jessica Benjamin, Joe Newman, Parenting Coach, Unconditional Parenting
This month's pick is one I have been meaning to read for a long time —
Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn.
Each week in this Q & A segment we will juxtapose two parenting philosophies — one as proposed by Julie & Holly (more of
an unconditional parenting style), and the other by Joe Newman, who provides a more transactional parenting approach.
In this Q & A segment we will juxtapose two parenting philosophies — one as proposed by Julie & Holly (more of
an unconditional parenting style), and the other by Joe Newman, who provides a more transactional parenting approach.