As a parent, if you are feeling overwhelmed and simply just stressed out, experts say that “slow parenting” may be just what you need.
What is “slow parenting”? Well, as per the experts at Parents.com, “slow parenting” “is a parenting style that encourages parents to take a break from the constant need to plan outings and extracurricular activities.”
“The idea is that without a packed schedule, kids have more time to play, explore, and develop at their own pace. And for parents, its an opportunity to take a break from the high-speed, competitive world of modern parenting, which demands more and more of parents’ time and energy.”
By encouraging parents to spend quality time instead of quantity time, at its core, the concept of slow parenting is encouraging parents to simply just take a step back. Parents don’t have to plan a million activities for their children and take the lead all the time. Sometimes, it’s good to just take a step back.
“You can just take a step back, follow [your child’s] lead, and [let them] show you what they’re really interested in and what they’re curious about,” says Liz Conradt, Ph.D., a clinical and developmental psychologist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University in an interview with Parents.com.
When parents add this parenting method to their toolboxes, they are in reality “[reducing] stress and burnout.”
Just like any parenting technique there are both pros and cons to “slow parenting”. Here is a list some of the pros to this technique as:
- Slow parenting prevents burnout.
- Taking a step back from over scheduled life leaves time to focus and enjoy quality time.
- Slow parenting can decrease parental pressure to be perfect and parental anxiety.
- When you slow parent, you allow children to take the lead and that strengthens the parent-child bond.
Cons to this technique include:
- Some parents may feel that this particular style is too unstructured.
- It is not an ideal technique for working parents.
- Social media pressure to be the perfect parent can derail any efforts of trying slow parenting.
According to the experts, “It’s important to point out that slow parenting is about becoming an uninvolved parent or giving up on any type of structure or routine in your kids’ lives—it’s about being more intentional with your time and energy.”
