Post #2 Parenting

How should adults in 2012 "parent" thier children? Lend your opinion on how this should be done. Think about the appraoch your parents/guardians have taken in raising you. Consider the parenting you've seen of others in your peer group (how your extended family parents your cousins, or how your friends parents deal with your friends), and finally, think about the parent you might want to be someday. How would you go about raising your children? What standandards would you hold them to (if any), what rules would you impose (if any)?

I believe that parenting is extremely important in the development of a child and that it influences children on finding their own identity. In my opinion, parents should allow their children to have the freedom of making their own decisions and to be fine with their children making mistakes. I believe freedom is a very important concept in parenting. You don't want to give them no freedom because, in most cases I have seen, that weakens the relationship between the parent and the child. For example, my friend got in trouble for driving too many people in his car and his mom found out. He got in a lot of trouble and was not allowed to hang out with our group of friends for a while. I believe that this mistake happened because there was no freedom or communication between the Mother or Son. I also think that it was unfortunate because our group of friends are not nearly as close with him as before and he still isn't allowed to go to some of our friend's houses still. If there was a BALANCE of FREEDOM, then they would have been able to communicate better on what happened or completely avoided it. There are also situations where children have too much freedom. There is a good amount of kids I know that are spoiled, lazy, and troubled because they are not punished from their mistakes and they take advantage of their parents. Along with that, they start to think highly of themselves and they think they are better than they really are. I believe that the successful way to parent children in 2012 is by finding a strong balance of freedom and by having a strong sense of communication and understanding. 
The way I would raise my children is by using the method I talked about above. I would find a balance of freedom and try my best to have a strong sense of communication. If my child makes a mistake, I will punish them but I will not hold it against them. I would make sure my children learn at a early age, that "NO" means NO! My parents did that to me when I was as little as two years old and at the time, I was extremely upset. Now that I am older, I understand why they raised me that way and I thank them for it. The word NO teaches children to be grateful for what they have and it helps children, including myself, to accept rejection if it comes my way.
I believe that there are many successful ways of parenting but all the best ways have a great balance between the parent and the child.