Should we give 'gentle parenting' a time out?
March 4, 2025
"Gentle parenting" is having a rough time of late. After years of being the parenting style du jour – and the inspiration for mountains of "momfluencer" social-media content – the empathy-heavy, punishment-free child-rearing method is getting some sceptical backlash.
With "gentle parenting", the "naughty step is out, talking feelings through is in," said Ed Cumming in The Telegraph. If you focus on your child's "motivations and feelings", rather than "guiding them with punishment or shame", you will equip them "better for adult life". But surveys and "frazzled" posts on parenting forums suggest parents are "tiring of deferring to their child's every whim: sometimes, children hit their little brother not because they are working through some unresolved trauma, but because their little brother is being annoying".
