In the newly emergent VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) and/or BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible) — take your pick — global order, the once natural craft of parenting (“spare the rod and spoil the child”) has become a complex duty. A mountain of research studies, books, and manuals has been written on ways and means to parent incrementally demanding children.

In the 1960s, American clinical and developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind was the first to formally identify and classify three parenting styles — authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. A fourth style, neglectful, was added later in the 1980s by Stanford researchers. Since then, helicopter, attachment, snowplough/bulldozer, free-range parenting styles have also been discovered and classified.

In 2011, Amy Chua, an ethnic Chinese professor at Yale Law School, set the world aflutter with her best-seller Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother — an ode to Asian-style tough love parenting that drills-n-skills children to attain high levels of academic achievement and/or success in co-curricular activities such as music and sports. The book generated a furore against authoritarian parenting, with evolved newgen parents coming down hard on Prof. Chua for denying sleepover privileges — reportedly a fundamental right of children in the US — for not getting an A grade in violin music.

The great majority of Indian parents — accustomed to being shouted down and worse by ever-angry patriarchs during their own childhood — are likely to wonder what’s the fuss about. But in post-liberalisation India, young parents are increasingly questioning traditional discipline-driven parenting norms.

In our cover story this month, we have quizzed several parenting experts on how best to nurture children so they mature into happy, confident and successful adults. They are unanimous that a hybrid parenting style that integrates traditional parenting wisdom with liberal love, care and affection, is urgently required. Generation Z and Gen Alpha need a carefully calibrated bit of both if they aren’t to go off the rails.

There’s much else in this issue of ParentsWorld. Check out our Middle Years story that advises parents to pay attention to colouring their children’s learning and leisure spaces to nurture focus, creativity, and emotional balance. In a Special Essay, Dr. Ann Kellams, professor of pediatrics at University of Virginia (USA) busts popular myths about breastfeeding. Also check out the Health & Nutrition essay in which Gurugram-based pediatrician Dr. Tarun Singh recommends balanced diets to promote children’s physical well-being.