Mine is much like Leasha's (sounds like we could have grown up in the same house) - we are trying to raise our kids where they are free to voice an opinion different to our own and no-one is going to get angry or fly into a rage. We are trying to be gentle parents - free from smacking, yelling and insults as a way of control. Actually we are trying to give up the whole concept of 'control' in parenting since I believe that the only person you can truly control is yourself ... my parents were huge control freaks. We are giving them a home where it belongs to them as much as to us - it is not DH and mine and everybody has to do what we say - it is our family home.

I read earlier this year in a parenting book something very interesting -
Sometimes we're so concerned about giving our children what we never had growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have growing up.
James Dobson.

I thought that was interesting food for thought - we sometimes strive so hard to be different to our parents we do forget about all the great things that they did for us. It certainly made me reflect a bit on my parenting and I shared it with my Mum. I think she feels like I reject her parenting outright (which I probably do to an extent) but it gave me a chance to talk and think about all the great things that happened to me growing up that I want to share with my kids.