What it is: Often confused for gentle parenting, permissive parenting is a style of childrearing with minimal rules and boundaries, thereby allowing children to do as they please, whenever they please. With this style, parents likely won't discipline their children for misbehaving, or perhaps even know how.
Why parents do it: Truthfully, many parents might not even be aware they've adopted this parenting style. It's also likely that every parent is permissive at one point or another as a mere survival strategy, counselor Amy C. Bryant tells PS. Oftentimes, however, permissive parents aren't sure how to set boundaries or might be afraid of upsetting their child by doing so.
What research says: Experts and research do not take kindly to permissive parenting, which may be considered an antithesis to authoritative parenting. "If you are incredibly permissive, you're setting that child up for failure later in life when they go out into the world that has rules and boundaries and limits," parenting expert Sarah Ockwell-Smith tells PS.
