Parenting Styles & Tips: Expert Pushes For Intuitive Parenting, Forget The Gadgets!

A lot of experts admit that parenting is challenging, but apart from books and encyclopedias, what's more helpful is parents trusting themselves or practicing intuitive parenting.

Based on intuitiveparenting,org, this kind of parenting is merely self-reliant. It is parenting by intuition or gut feel. 

The website describes it as "listening, if you will, with the heart. It is keeping your eyes, ears, and mind open to your children, and letting what you see, hear, and feel speak directly to your heart, and letting your responses to your children come from your heart. It is, in short, doing what you feel is best."

Stephen Camarata, a child development researcher, advised that parents need to find their inner "parenting voice."

"In a general sense, the studies on neuroplasticity show us that you have to have at least some exposure to hearing things, seeing things and so on for the brain to get acclimated," said Camarata as Philstar writes.

Camarata also emphasized that parents should learn to reconnect with their children despite their careers and busy schedules. He added, "It's really important that the parent enter into a dialogue with a teacher pretty early on. Parents have a lot more ability and a lot more authority than they might think at first blush."

As the saying goes, mothers (parents) know best, but people also tend to look for written literature to check whether or not they are doing it right. With that, parenting basically becomes bookish and document-cratic, and the essence of parenting is lost. Intuitive parenting is all about listening, hearing and feeling what a child needs, as said by intuitiveparenting.org.

Gadgets and books are also helpful In parenting, says Camarata, but one needs to engage close contact with his/her child. "I don't want to see a child left alone in a corner with a device. A parent should be there and interacting in the same way they would with a book. You need to be actively involved. You want to wire their brains to be able to take advantage of technology," he tells Philstar.

Camarata also advised parents on their eagerness to speed up their child's learning experience through schooling. He says that they should just let the rest of it sink in and let the learning process naturally flow in children's young minds.

Lisa Writer of intuitiveparenting.org also mentioned, "Learn to listen to your wisdom. Get in touch with your soul level perspective on each family member and what is uniquely best for him/her."