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Slow Parenting: a new parenting model

Slow Parenting: a new parenting model

March 28, 2024

Slow Parenting, or Slow Parenthood , is a style of parenting that promotes education based on the natural rhythms of the children themselves, beyond insisting that they acquire knowledge as quickly as possible.

Since it emerged, it has been considered an educational revolution, since it makes critical criticisms of parenting styles based on hyperactivity, and ensures that children are happy and satisfied with their own achievements, even if these will not make them the richest. neither in the most popular nor in the fastest.

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What is Slow Parenting?

Slow Parenting is also known as Simplicity Parenting. It is a style of parenting based on lifestyles through which daily activities are carried out at appropriate rates , without putting pressure to advance in the development of learning and skills.


That is to say that, far from being a movement that suggests doing all our activities slowly, It is an educational proposal that values ​​quality over speed : suggests that it is more valuable to do things as well as possible, than to do them as quickly as possible. Thus, try that children learn the importance of achieving their own goals, beyond achieving them first.

Slow Parenting arises in response to the negative consequences of parenting styles that are based on speed and hyperactivity; This issue is also part of the Slow Movement, where the tendency of our societies to equate success with speed is discussed.


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A proposal in defense of the slowness

The Slow Parenting proposal is born from a series of books written by Canadian journalist Carl Honoré , who, in fact, never used the term "Slow Parenting", but did question the evident obsession with acceleration that is characteristic of Western societies.

We tend to do things too fast, that is, our habits are strongly based on speed . This is because we consider the latter as a success factor: it is more valuable to arrive first; than the process itself to achieve our goals.

The problem is that this is a lifestyle that in the long run affects our health, our affective relationships, our productivity and our creativity. In other words, excessive haste directly affects our quality of life, which means that we should not transmit these values ​​to children.


Although the author himself says that he has never used the concept of "Slow Parenting", now that it has been extended, he defines it as a way to create balance at home , which is based on the following premise: it is clear that children need to develop and adapt to the different demands that each environment presents, but this does not mean that childhood is a kind of career.

Parents should give children as much time as necessary to explore the world on their own terms. Thus, the proposal of Slow Parenting is to let the little ones work according to their own needs, since they are the reflection of their true potential (and not of what adults want them to be, do, aspire or achieve).

This also means that children they will receive the attention and affection they need without being conditioned to the rhythms that adults mark in our adult activities.

Why did speed become synonymous with success?

Carl Honoré has also explained that our tendency to educate with speed has arisen from the need that adults have to create a "perfect childhood". The problem is that frequently, this perfection is quite focused on consumer ideals .

For example, in the face of the widespread demand for "perfection" in Western societies, we constantly seek to have "the perfect house", "the perfect job", "the perfect car", "the perfect body", and can not miss "children perfect "; What also connects with the new needs generated in globalization: compete is the way to respond to crises and labor uncertainties.

In addition to this, Honoré points out the latest changes in family models, where the number of children who have many couples in developed countries has decreased, giving parents less opportunity to generate experience in parenting.

Likewise, the age at which people become parents significantly transforms educational styles . First of all, it is common for parents to feel distrust and uncertainty about their practices, and not knowing how to create "perfect children", delegate the responsibility to specialists, guardians, etc .; and they end up transmitting among themselves (among the parents of different families) demands for perfection and the idea of ​​childhood as competition.

Some suggestions of Slow Parenting

To begin to counter what we have developed in the previous section, one of the proposals of Slow Parenting is to try to spend more time with the family, but making sure that the main activity is not to go shopping, nor to live around devices that do not facilitate the interaction, like television; but through truly interactive activities, which also leave space for inactivity and rest for everyone.

Another suggestion is enhance the spontaneous play of children , which is the one that starts from their own initiative and their curiosity about the elements of the natural environment in which they operate. The latter to avoid imposing rigid models with contents that often do not promote the creative and curious potential of early childhood.

Finally, Slow Parenting seeks that children develop the ability to cope with the unpredictability of the real world and learn to know themselves from a young age.

In other words, seeks that children recognize that everyday life has risks , and the most appropriate way to do it is to allow them to face them. Only then can they generate strategies to detect their needs, solve their problems and ask for help in the right ways.

Bibliographic references:

  • Eldiario.es (2016). The philosophy of "slow" by Carl Honoré, the "global phenomenon" against haste. Retrieved May 10, 2018. Available at //www.eldiario.es/cultura/filosofia-Carl-Honore-fenomeno-global_0_508499302.html.
  • Belkin, L. (2009). What is Slow-Parenting ?. The New York Times. Retrieved May 10, 2018. Available at //parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/what-is-slow-parenting/.
  • The Telegraph (2008). Slow parenting part two: hey, parents, leave those kids alone. Retrieved May 10, 2018. Available at //www.telegraph.co.uk/education/3355928/Slow-parenting-part-two-hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone.html.

LoveParenting: Slow Parenting and what to do about "boredom" (March 2024).


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