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"Parent" redirects here. For other meanings, see Parent (disambiguation).

Parenting is the process of raising a child from birth until they reach adulthood. This task is usually done by the biological parents, but if the parents are unable or unwilling to provide care, the task is usually deferred to adoptive parents, foster parents, close relatives (including older siblings), godparents, or institutions (such as group homes or orphanages). An integral part of parenting is education of the child. (For further details on the education of children, see Education)

Contents 1 Aspects of parenting 1.1 Parenting Methods and Practices 2 Pregnancy and the early years 2.1 During infancy 2.2 Common areas many parents look to address during infancy 3 School years 4 Assistance 5 Observers 6 Parenting assessment 7 See also 8 External links

Aspects of parenting

• Physical care:
  • Reliably providing shelter, education, medical care, physical safety and nourishment.
• Social development and emotional support:
  • Love, play and physical touch.
  • Social skills and etiquette.
  • Ethics and value systems.
  • Moral and spiritual development.
  • Norms and contributions to the child's religion and ethnic customs.
• Financial support:
  • Money provided by non-custodial parents, following a divorce.
  • Insurance coverage and payments for education.

Parenting Methods and Practices

Parenting may involve praise, but it also involves punishment. Some parents no longer consider spanking a necessary punishment. The term "child training" implies a specific type of parenting that focuses on holistic understanding of the child. The "Taking Children Seriously" philosophy sees both praise and punishment as manipulative and harmful to the child and seeks other way to reach agreement with them. The term "attachment parenting" seeks to create strong emotional bonds and avoid physical punishment, with discipline being accommodated by interactions with a child's emotional needs.

• Discipline:
  • Time-out
  • Spanking
  • Taking Children Seriously (TCS) philosophy
  • Parental supervision

• Parenting Fundamentals:
  • Structure
  • Accountability
  • Consistency
  • Motivation

Pregnancy and the early years

During pregnancy the unborn child is affected by many decisions his or her parents make, particularly choices linked to their lifestyle. The health and diet decisions of the mother can have either a positive or negative impact on the child.

During infancy

Specific care includes:

• Touching, holding, playing, stimulating and interacting with the child.
• Providing food and drink, and in the case of younger children, the process of feeding or helping with that.
• Providing a toilet and facilities for washing, and in the case of younger children, the washing itself or helping with that, and providing diapers or helping using the toilet (Toilet training).
• providing clothing, and in the case of small children, putting the clothes on and taking them off or helping with that;

• Infant care:
  • Breastfeeding
  • Baby bottle

Common areas many parents look to address during infancy

• Teething
• Sleep
• Childhood development
• Paternal bond

School years

• Education:
  • preschool education
  • arranging for a school to provide formal education,
  • finishing school
• Spiritual enrichment
• Social development

Assistance

Parents may receive assistance from a variety of individuals and organizations. Employers may offer specific benefits or programs for parents.

• Parental leave

Observers

Benjamin Spock was an authority on parenting to a generation of North American parents. A current authority is T. Berry Brazelton, the founder of the Child Development Unit at Children's Hospital, Boston, and Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus at Harvard Medical School.

Also see James Dobson

Parenting assessment

There are several parent self-report measures that have been developed for use by clinicians and researchers to assess parenting, such as the Parenting Stress Index (PSI; Abidin, 1995) and Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI; Bavolek, 1984). Parenting measures can also be observational, such as the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA-II; Holigrocki, Kaminski, & Frieswyk, 1999).

See:

• Abidin, R. (1995). Parenting Stress Index: Professional Manual. 3rd Ed. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.

• Bavolek, S. J. (1984). Handbook for the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Family Development Associates, Inc.

• Holigrocki, R. J, Kaminski, P. L., & Frieswyk, S. H. (1999). Introduction to the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 63(3), 413–428.

See also

• Maternal bond and paternal bond
• List of child related articles
• Child abuse
• Elder abuse
• Family and consumer science
• Homemaking
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Attachment parenting
• Empty nest syndrome
• Parental Alienation Syndrome
• Finer Report on One Parents Families – see Sir Morris Finer

External links

• Child and Youth Health Wealth of practical health information
• Parenting Information Articles and news about parenting
• Parenting wiki Detailed parenting wiki
• Parenting book reviews powered by Kirkus Reports
• Baby Names Box – a site developed with families and parents in mind
• BBC's parenting website
• BBC h2g2 Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything: Families
• Parenting Style and Its Correlates
• Parenting and Career Development
• The Changing Face of Parenting Education
• If an Adolescent Begins To Fail in School, What Can Parents and Teachers Do?
• Parent Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA-II)
• Shared Parenting Works
• Proposed Shared Parenting Laws in the U.S
• It's all your fault!

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