Plotting these two characteristics, Baumrind found that most parents fell into three categories that lined up with Goldilocks’s search for the perfect bed. If a parent was low in demandingness and high in responsiveness, they were too soft, a permissive parent who would let their child get away with just about anything. If a parent was high in demandingness and low in responsiveness, they were too hard, an authoritarian who relied on harsh discipline, with little attention to the child’s needs.
