More Parents Are Embracing ‘Gentle Parenting’ — But There’s 1 Thing Many Get Wrong

LOADING ERROR LOADING You’ve probably come across the phrase “gentle parenting.” It encompasses a lot of ideas, leaving plenty of room for disagreement. We asked several experts what they think the phrase “gentle parenting” means and why many of today’s parents are eschewing the disciplinary tactics they grew up with and turning to a new set of tools. Nanika Coor, a clinical psychologist in Brooklyn, New York, told HuffPost that the kind of “mutually respectful parent-child dynamic” that gentle parenting describes could be found in Indigenous cultures, “before brutal colonization practices attempted to erase it.” In an episode of the podcast “Your Story Medicine,” Leslie Priscilla of the Latinx Parenting Association says, “While I was exposing myself to gentle parenting by reading all of these books by white people, I was like, ‘This sounds really great, but I do not see my experience reflected here.’ I learned that the practices of gentle parenting were actually stolen from us. Parents aiming for a gentle approach “try to understand the world from their child’s perspective, treating the child as an individual with their own point of view, and approach to the world, rather than as an extension of the parent,” said Jenna Hermans, a parent coach and the author of “Chaos to Calm: 5 Ways Busy Parents Can Break Free From Overwhelm,” told HuffPost. Whether you choose to label your own parenting preferences as “gentle” or not, we’re all doing our best to raise emotionally healthy kids who are capable of fulfilling and meaningful relationships in their lives.