Nurturing Mothers

Did you grow up in a warm and nurturing home? Did your parents listen, show they cared, and talk things over with you, teach you new things, and respect you? Recent research shows that positive parenting behaviors can be passed down from one generation to the next.

According to an international team of researchers reporting in the Journal of Child Development, mothers who were raised in positive, nurturing homes during childhood and adolescence are more likely to raise their own children in warm, sensitive, and stimulating ways.

Those who were raised in a low-authoritarian household as preschoolers, and in low-conflict homes during middle childhood, and who had trusting and close relationships with their parents during the teen years, were more likely to engage in such positive parenting with their own young children.

This study was based on interviews and observations of more than 200 New Zealanders followed over 20 years, beginning during childhood - and as participants in the study became parents themselves.

The way we were parented shapes our parenting style. Parent education for all new parents, where they learn to create a positive environment for their children, can start a chain reaction that lasts across many generations.

Looking for a parenting class? Check out my six-hour class at: http://hillsboroughfcs.ifas.ufl.edu/Calendarpubs/ParentingBrochure.pdf