As was noted in Section Two, we found some confusion because of the different words that different writers were using to describe what appeared to be similar. This was true for “intentional parenting, intentional interactions and intentional relationships. When you read the definitions for these terms, you will find all of these terms, including effective parenting, are intentional concepts.
In this Guide, we are using the term intentional parenting but regardless of what term you use to define your parenting style, you need to remember that “parenting is the art of raising a child. You already have the basics of what you need to be a parent: your love for your child, instincts and common sense. All parents bring their own skills, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, values and culture to their families.” 12
These are our initial parenting skills but we need to understand that to be an intentional parent, we need to plan how to continue growing and building our parenting skills as our children age. Intentional parenting stresses the need for parents to have an intentional approach to improving their parent-child skills.
Intentional Parenting is a term you may have heard but have only given limited attention to the term. If so, you are like most parents. We did the same thing because some of us who developed this guide had not taken the time to learn much about many parenting terms. But we found after we started our search that we were really practicing some of the intentional parenting behaviors and did not know it.
In our search we found some writers using the term Quick-Fix Parenting. We had not heard this expression previously so we decided to grow our own parenting skills. We were glad we did because some of us who were older had experienced this. Plus, we had many friends who had similar experiences.
Yes, almost all parents have used the Quick-Fix model when tired and totally frustrated over a specific behavior that has occurred. But we have learned this is a no-no model to use if a parent uses it over a long period of time.
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