Reality television shows like SuperNanny have created something of a false impression regarding nanny disciplinary techniques by enforcing the idea that the majority of nannies are engaged by parents who are struggling with problem behaviors and are searching for corrective childcare services. However this is not actually an accurate view of the private childcare industry. Professional nannies know that most parents actively seek a nanny whose disciplinary style compliments their own, which creates a need for nannies to be well-informed about a variety of child-rearing methods and styles.
There is such a wide variety of parenting and childcare blogs available that nannies are no longer required to spend a small fortune at the book store every time they get a new post; instead there’s a wealth of information on line, right at your fingertips. These thirty blogs feature posts that run the gamut of parenting and disciplinary styles, and nannies are encouraged to research the elements of each style and attempt to adapt their own style of discipline to include elements of that favored by her charges’ parents.
Permissive Parenting
Permissive parenting is characterized by a lack of hard-and-fast rules, uses gentle corrective action, and values lenience over authority. While this style of parenting is sometimes decried as “indulgent” parenting, there are many parents who are fiercely devoted to this non-confrontational style of child-rearing.
Authoritarian Parenting
Authoritarian parents are characterized by their strict rules and non-responsive attitudes, and usually favor punishment over less harsh discipline. Most also have extremely high expectations and don’t always feel the need to explain their reasoning behind rules and punishments.
Authoritative Parenting
Falling somewhere between permissive and authoritarian parenting styles on the spectrum, authoritative parents enforce rules and boundaries, while encouraging independence and expressing affection. Authoritative parents have high expectations for their children, and discipline them when rules are broken, but do not withhold affection and encouragement.
Attachment Parenting
Parents that subscribe to the attachment parenting theory popularized by pediatrician Dr. William Sears are likely to have very strong ideas about the type of discipline their children are subjected to and the methods by which it’s carried out. Based around the theory that children form emotional bonds with their caregivers during early childhood that shape their lives throughout adulthood, attachment parenting tends to take a very gentle approach to discipline.
Natural Consequence Parenting
Using natural consequences as a form of discipline is a matter-of-fact approach that allows kids to see the consequences of their actions without threatening, bargaining, or giving in and interfering to affect the outcome of a situation.
Positive Reinforcement Parenting
Positive reinforcement as a method of parenting focuses less on telling children how not to behave, and more on rewarding good behavior as a means of encouraging continued good conduct. Adherents theorize that children learn to associate good behavior with pleasurable outcomes, and then actively seek those outcomes by choosing not to misbehave.
It’s important for nannies to respect the chosen parenting methods of their employers, even if they don’t agree with them; in the end, the parents have the right to make the final call regarding how and why their children are disciplined.
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