PARENTING AND PARENTS YESTERDAY AND TODAY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

In this study, parenting styles and parents of yesterday and today are compared from the perspective of eight adults of different age, sex, professional training, and nationality. The aim is to identify the similarities and differences between the parenting style and the parents of yesterday and today to draw the profile of the parent that today’s children need. The method used in the study is qualitative, and the tool used is the interview. The parenting style of the interviewees’ parents oscillated between adequate (correct, understanding, permissive, etc.) and inadequate (authoritarian, classic, conflictual, etc); parenting style had an impact on the interviewees, but only one of them stated that he had learned to build a more consistent model of authenticity based on it. The profile of the dream parent should include acceptance, companionship, harmony, etc. to avoid situations where parents are from the past and children are from the future.