A community of women supporting women. Real stories. Real support. Real you. Write for us

Kids & Parenting

Gentle parenting: It’s not about being perfect

Connection over correction, and what that looks like on a hard day.

A parent leaning in to help a young child at a table

The first thing to understand about gentle parenting is that it is not permissive parenting. Boundaries still exist. What changes is how you hold them.

On a good day this looks like kneeling down to eye level and naming the feeling before naming the rule. On a hard day it looks like apologising after you have raised your voice, and meaning it.

Children do not need a parent who never gets it wrong. They need one who repairs. That repair is the lesson, far more than the calm you managed to hold for the first ten minutes.

I keep one question nearby when it gets difficult: is this about safety, or is this about my own tiredness? The answer changes what I do next more than any technique I have read.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *