Parenting or child rearing is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a biological relationship.

The most common caretaker in parenting is the father or mother, or both, biological parent(s) of the child in question, although a surrogate may be an older sibling, a grandparent, a legal guardian, aunt, uncle or other family member, or a family friend. Governments and society may also have a role in child-rearing. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent or non-blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised in foster care, or placed in an orphanage. Parenting skills vary, and a parent or surrogate with good parenting skills may be referred to as a good parent.

Parenting styles vary by historical time period, race/ethnicity, social class, and other social features. Additionally, research supports that parental history both in terms of attachments of varying quality as well as parental psychopathology, particularly in the wake of adverse experiences, can strongly influence parental sensitivity and child outcomes.

Factors that affect decisions

Social class, wealth, culture and income have a very strong impact on what methods of child rearing parents use. Cultural values play a major role in how a parent raises his or her child. However, parenting is always evolving; as times, cultural practices, social norms, and traditions change

In psychology, the parental investment theory suggests that basic differences between males and females in parental investment have great adaptive significance and lead to gender differences in mating propensities and preferences.

A family’s social class plays a large role in the opportunities and resources that will be available to a child. Working-class children often grow up at a disadvantage with the schooling, communities, and level of parental attention available compared to those from the middle-class or upper-class[citation needed]. Also, lower working-class families do not get the kind of networking that the middle and upper classes do through helpful family members, friends, and community individuals or groups as well as various professionals or experts.

A parenting style is indicative of the overall emotional climate in the home. Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind identified three main parenting styles in early child development: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. These parenting styles were later expanded to four, to include an uninvolved style. On the one hand, these four styles involve combinations of acceptance and responsiveness, and in turn, involve demand and control. Research has found that parenting style is significantly related to a child’s subsequent mental health and well-being. In particular, authoritative parenting is positively related to mental health and satisfaction with life, and authoritarian parenting is negatively related to these variables.

Authoritative parenting

Described by Baumrind as the “just right” style, it combines a medium level demands on the child and a medium level responsiveness from the parents. Authoritative parents rely on positive reinforcement and infrequent use of punishment. Parents are more aware of a child’s feelings and capabilities and support the development of a child’s autonomy within reasonable limits. There is a give-and-take atmosphere involved in parent-child communication and both control and support are balanced. Research[vague] shows that this style is more beneficial than the too-hard authoritarian style or the too-soft permissive style.

Authoritarian parenting styles

Authoritarian parents are very rigid and strict. High demands are placed on the child, but there is little responsiveness to them. Parents who practice authoritarian-style parenting have a non-negotiable set of rules and expectations that are strictly enforced and require rigid obedience. When the rules are not followed, punishment is often used to promote and insure future obedience. There is usually no explanation of punishment except that the child is in trouble for breaking a rule.

This parenting style is strongly associated with corporal punishment, such as spanking and “Because I said so” is a typical response to a child’s question of authority. This type of parenting is seen more often in working-class families than in the middle class[citation needed]. In 1983 Diana Baumrind found that children raised in an authoritarian-style home were less cheerful, more moody and more vulnerable to stress. In many cases these children also demonstrated passive hostility.

Permissive parenting

Permissive, or indulgent, parenting is more popular in middle-class than in working-class families[citation needed]. In these settings, a child’s freedom and autonomy are highly valued, and parents tend to rely mostly on reasoning and explanation. Parents are undemanding, so there tends to be little if any punishment or explicit rules in this style of parenting. These parents say that their children are free from external constraints and tend to be highly responsive to whatever the child wants at the time. Children of permissive parents are generally happy but sometimes show low levels of self-control and self-reliance because they lack structure at home[citation needed].

Uninvolved parenting

An uninvolved or neglectful parenting style is when parents are often emotionally or physically absent.They have little to no expectation of the child and regularly have no communication. They are not responsive to a child’s needs and have little to no behavioral expectations. If present, they may provide what the child needs for survival with little to no engagement. There is often a large gap between parents and children with this parenting style.[vague] Children with little or no communication with their own parents tended to be victimized by other children and may themselves be exhibit deviant behavior. Children of uninvolved parents suffer in social competence, academic performance, psychosocial development and problem behavior.

There is no single definitive model of parenting. With authoritarian and permissive parenting on opposite sides of the spectrum, most conventional and modern models of parenting fall somewhere in between. Parenting strategies, as well as behaviors and ideals of what parents expect, (whether communicated verbally and/or non-verbally) can also play a significant role in a child’s development.their children are free from external constraints and tend to be highly responsive to whatever the child wants at the time. Children of permissive parents are generally happy but sometimes show low levels of self-control and self-reliance because they lack structure at home[citation needed].

A report I read this morning reinforced my biggest fear as to why my son may have been born prematurely. In a column titled, “Premature babies: The pregnant elephant in the room is stress,” the writer makes a strong case linking the two.

In it, writer Anna White argues that the stress of working and women who refuse to slow down while they’re pregnant could contribute to premature births. “As career women, in our bid to have it all, all at once, are we endangering our unborn children by increasing the risk of pre-term birth?”

Sleeping newborns captured in adorable photographs

THEY may have only just entered the world but these sleeping beauties are already showing off their personalities.Southampton professional photographer Julie Davis waits until the newborns are in a deep slumber before placing them in a variety of positions.

A mother is the female parent of a child. Mothers are women who inhabit or perform the role of bearing some relation to their children, who may or may not be their biological offspring. Thus, dependent on the context, women can be considered mothers by virtue of having given birth, by raising their child(ren), supplying their ovum for fertilisation, or some combination thereof. Such conditions provide a way of delineating the concept of motherhood, or the state of being a mother. Women who meet the third and first categories usually fall under the terms ‘birth mother’ or ‘biological mother’, regardless of whether the individual in question goes on to parent their child. Accordingly, a woman who meets only the second condition may be considered an adoptive mother, and those who meet only the first or only the third a surrogacy mother.

An adoptive mother is a female who has become the child’s parent through the legal process of adoption. A biological mother is the female genetic contributor to the creation of the infant, through sexual intercourse or egg donation. A biological mother may have legal obligations to a child not raised by her, such as an obligation of monetary support. A putative mother is a female whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established. A stepmother is a female who is the wife of a child’s father and they may form a family unit, but who generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child.

“A female role model that children can look up to is sometimes referred to as a mother-figure.”

– Maya Angelou

The above concepts defining the role of mother are neither exhaustive nor universal, as any definition of ‘mother’ may vary based on how social, cultural, and religious roles are defined. The parallel conditions and terms for males: those who are (typically biologically) fathers do not, by definition, take up the role of fatherhood. Motherhood and fatherhood are not limited to those who are or have parented. Women who are pregnant may be referred to as expectant mothers or mothers-to-be, though such applications tend to be less readily applied to (biological) fathers or adoptive parents The process of becoming a mother has been referred to as “matrescence”.The adjective “maternal” refers to a mother and comparatively to “paternal” for a father. The verb “to mother” means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the noun “mothering”. Related terms of endearment are mom (mama, mommy), mum, mumsy, mamacita (ma, mam) and mammy.