For as long as the practice known as "gentle parenting" has gained prominence in recent years, it's attracted critics skeptical at the idea that a style that prioritizes a child's feelings could provide them with much discipline.
This is because gentle parenting (which is also called "respectful" or "mindful" parenting) tends to resolve problem behavior by exploring the emotions behind it with a child rather than punishing them or using common phrases that establish a parent's authority to regulate their child's actions.
Depending on how much value a skeptic can see in this form of parenting, they may see gentle parenting as a style that lets your children control you and not the other way around. Or if they don't go quite that far, they may warn that while it's nice to provide a safe and emotionally nurturing environment for your child, that will leave them unprepared for the "real world."
After all, most of us can attest that a lot of the people we meet couldn't care less about how we feel and some will hurt us either to wrestle with their own frustrations or to get what they want.
But as far as one mom is concerned, gentle parenting styles better equip children for those situations than critics give them credit for. And a recent encounter her daughter had with a teacher seemed to exemplify that.
