Abstract
There are four styles of parenting and each one has an effect on a child’s development. The first
is authoritarian which consist of parents being high demanding and low in acceptance. They are
very controlling and show no affection towards their children. Authoritative parents are balanced
between discipline and emotional support. They encourage their children and also show them the
difference between right and wrong. Permissive parents are high in emotional support but are
low in discipline. These parents lack parental control. Lastly disengaged or neglectful parents,
who are not involved in their children’s life and show little interest in their well-being. Over my
twenty-seven years of life I have realized the effects my parents parenting styles had on my
siblings and myself. They have impacted their behavior, educational development, my self-
esteem and other roles in our lives. The consequences from their parenting styles has played a
very important role in most of my sibling’s lives today.
There are a lot of people who might believe growing up in a big family is something
amazing. From experience, I can tell you it is not all lollipops and rainbows. There is seven of us
kids, and all from the same mom and dad. Throughout my life I repeatedly wondered how all
seven of us kids could come out so very different. Or the better question I guess is, how I came
out so very different from my brothers and sisters. We all had the same mom and dad, but I
frequently and still do, feel like the black sheep of the family. It always felt as if I did not belong.
Deep down I knew the way my parents raised my siblings had a lot to do with their overall
outcomes in life. Of course my parents did not put my siblings in the situations they are in today,
but their parenting styles did play a big impact on their development. After thoroughly
researching parenting styles, I now understand more in depth their influences on a child’s
upbringing.
From birth and throughout a child’s life, children learn and pick up behaviors from their
environment (Mensha & Kuranchie, 2013). My dad came from a very abusive childhood, and
because of this I believe it made him very abusive towards us. He was an authoritarian parent he
controlled everything, and it did not matter what we had to say he was always correct. He hardly
showed any type of sensitivity to my siblings and myself. According to research fathers who
grew up in loving positive relationships with their parents, are more likely to be sensitive then
those who had negative relationships (Lewis & Lamb, 2003). My father suffered broken bones
