Is minimalist parenting the way to go?

1960’s New York City saw the birth of a concept that is so widely used in our current times; Minimalism. The concept has grown from being used to campaign for extreme simplicity in visual arts, to describing our every life.

Minimalism has grown to identify people’s choice of lifestyle and even dress codes. It has been recently used as a parenting style.

Minimalistic parenting has become a method of raising one’s children.

She Knows, an online platform dedicated to women describes this as a form of parenting that requires less to what we are inclined to do. We always want what is best for our children and therefore give them what they want, and intervene whenever they need to and we deem necessary. Minimalistic parenting requires the opposite.

It requires parents to give their children less and intervene as ‘minimally’ as possible.

Minimalist parenting is the opposite of helicopter parenting.

Do you have a stash of toys that is sitting in the house creating clutter and gathering dust?

A minimalist parenting advocate would advise you to ask your children to assess whether or not they are playing with those. They need to evaluate how much they need they toy and when last they used. If they don’t need it, they cant keep it.

Are there clothes that fit your child, but they never wear?

This parenting style encourages you to get rid of those items. The less the child has, the more they will value what the have, and get to wear all of it, a minimalist would say.

Is your child’s schedule filled with too many extracurricular activities?

The more your child does, the less they have time to themselves and those around them.

Advantages of minimalistic parenting

-Your child will learn the difference between wants and need
-They will learn about giving back to others what you don’t use, not what is broken
-Your children will spend less time going from one extracurricular activity to the next and spend time with their family and friends.
-The children will learn to make decisions for themselves without overbearing parents
-Parents can save money on buying less

Disadvantages of minimalistic parenting

-Children grow attached to the things that they have left. There becomes a fine line between valuing and obsessing over items.

A one-size-fits-all approach to parenting does not exist. But maybe this might just be the parenting style you and your family need right now.

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