The Gentle Parenting Book: How to raise calmer, happier children from birth to seven

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Be honest with yourself for a minute — are you a yeller? I know I've struggled with that. At my kids, at other cars on the highway, at Jeopardy contestants who should clearly know the answer given their occupation. I yell.

There's nothing that excites me more than evidence-based practice, and this book is full of it. Naumberg understands that at some point, it's going to hit the fan. She gives you concrete, honest advice for dealing with yourself while you deal with your kids. There's the potential for parents to be too permissive and not set appropriate boundaries and expectations for behavior. Additional potential problems include indulging a child’s emotions and behavior without guiding and teaching," says Peters. Is there any research to support gentle parenting? Research shows that many of the concepts surrounding gentle parenting methods prove it's a healthy and effective way to raise your children to become competent and confident adults. But the unfortunate reality is that this parenting method is foreign to many of us. Thankfully, books about gentle parenting are a great tool for teaching you how to parent in peace and create harmony in your household — and they're becoming more popular every year.

How can you use gentler parenting techniques to ensure you're setting your children up for success later in life? Enter Scaffold Parenting. Gentle parenting is a form of positive parenting that emphasizes understanding a child’s behavior through empathy and respect, giving choices versus commands, and responding in a way that considers a child’s intellectual and developmental levels," explains Dan Peters, PhD, a psychologist and host of the Parent Footprint podcast. Adults who have empathy and care for other people are a gift to the whole world. Gentle parenting is a way you can start to instill those value in your children. It also fosters independence, self-confidence, and many other virtues. Admittedly this book is more aspirational than most, but that’s kind of what’s so brilliant about it. Yes, it’s a gentle parenting book, but the author’s subtle humor helps you navigate the highs and lows of parenting with purpose in a way that just makes sense.

Gentle parenting is a fairly new approach to parenting. It's also hard to objectively quantify how many people are doing it and how they are applying the philosophy. That means that there isn't a lot of clinical research diving into how gentle parenting affects children as they grow into adults. More and more parents looking for a strategy that combines healthy boundaries, natural consequences, and respect for others are turning to a philosophy called "gentle parenting." As the name suggests, gentle parenting is meant to give children lots of compassionate cushion as parents lead through empathy.If your toddler spills their milk, the gentle parenting response won't be to scold their carelessness or respond with words of frustration. Instead, your child could be required to help clean up their mess, with your assistance. That helps your child understand natural consequences, and also that they bear responsibility for their actions. In other words, this strategy works only if it is establishing healthy, predictable family rhythms that both you and your child feel comfortable with. Real-world examples of gentle parenting will look different at different phases of your child's development. Peters gives some examples: