Some parents think it is good for children to be allowed to run wild without control or supervision. They say that this enables children’s personalities to develop naturally and that they will learn to be responsible by the mistakes they make. However this might lead to delinquency with the children ending up in courts or it might simply make children self-centred, without any consideration for others.
Other parents believe in being strict, but taken to extremes this can produce a too authoritarian atmosphere in the home, with the children being dominated and ruled by their parents. Parents can also be very possessive and try to keep their children dependent on them. These last two attitudes can encourage rebelliousness against parents, school, authority in a child or, conversely, suppress a child’s natural sense of adventure and curiosity. A strict upbringing by over-caring parents can make a child so timid and inhibited that he or she is unable to express freely his or her emotions and form mature relationships. To bring up children to be normal, well-adjusted human beings requires great wisdom, and perhaps a bit of luck.