Monday, February 8, 2016

Childhood Depression and Overly Permissive Parenting


A quick post on overly permissive parenting.  Some parents care more about being their child’s friend than being a parent but that’s a bad idea.  Friends let kids get away with things that can affect a child in negative ways like allowing children to watch TV, play video games or use the computer whenever they want for as long as they want instead of doing homework or studying, causing problems at school.    



Children of overly permissive parents are more likely to talk back to their parents and other adults including teachers.  These children would rather do what they want and not what they are supposed to do.  This contributes to more problems at school.   



Parents who are overly permissive tend to set few limits and boundaries.  Children need limits and boundaries in order to feel secure and safe and in order for them to learn what’s OK and not OK.  Children need to be taught right from wrong.  Also without limits and boundaries children can’t learn appropriate social skills like sharing and they may not care what other children want to do or play. 



These children can be very selfish and demanding, wanting their way all the time.  They have little self-control over themselves and their emotions.  They usually don’t know how to deal with their emotions when they get upset and they tend to be more emotionally reactive and less able to understand or control their emotions. 



Overly permissive parents often place few demands or expectations on their children.  Without demands and expectations; a child can’t learn, grow and mature.  They won’t be challenged to do better at school, at home or in life.  They’ll only do what they need to in order to get by. 



These children can’t achieve their true potential.  They lack self-discipline.  They tend to do poorly in school and make poor grades.  The problem is that they don’t know how to do well or make good grades or control themselves because their parents haven’t taught them how to work hard or how to set and achieve academic or emotional goals.    



Overly permissive parents tend to have few rules and the rules they do have are very inconsistent.  This can also cause a lot of problems in school.  Children get into trouble because they aren’t used to following rules.  They do what they want and not what the teachers says. 



These children often have problems with teachers because they enforce the rules.  They may think they are being picked on by the teachers.  This can cause a lot of anger and self-pity and sadness.  Children of permissive parents may have a lot of issues with authority and authority figures.    



The big problem with permissive parents is they don’t discipline their children.  They only intervene when things get serious.  One of the best treatments for childhood behavior problems is parent training because many permissive parents don’t know how to discipline their children.  Instead they tend to bribe their children with candy or toys to get them to behave.  This can teach a child if they misbehave they’ll get a treat which is the opposite of what you want to teach them.  Children need to learn to be good because it is the right thing to do not because they’ll get something.    



Children need consistent rules, discipline and consequences so they can learn right from wrong and why things are wrong, so they can learn appropriate behavior and so they can learn if they do something wrong, they will be punished for it.  Most teachers, school officials and police aren’t going to let a child get away with bad behavior.



Children of overly permissive parents often have low self-esteem and tend to be very unhappy.  They are more likely to engage in underage drinking, drug use or other risky behaviors.  These children are also at a greater risk of developing depression because they don’t know how to deal with their own insecurities and unhappiness.  These children may be more likely to externalize their depression.  It can come out as anger, irritability, hopelessness and behavior problems.   



Many types of parenting can contribute to children’s issues like depression and anxiety.  I’ll talk about overly strict parenting next time.                    






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