Don’t punish your kids if you want them to grow up resilient, child psychologist says. Here’s why

Mona Delahooke doesn’t love the phrase “gentle parenting.”

Especially because her book, “Brain-Body Parenting: How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids” is often lumped into the same category as gentle parenting literature.

“The word ‘gentle’ is triggering,” she says. “That’s why I don’t use it. People think it means never saying ‘no,’ but this isn’t the case.”

In her book, Delahooke, who is a child psychologist, tackles a more “granular” child-rearing method called “responsive parenting.”

“The new paradigm is building resilience in human beings,” she says.

“Relational neuroscience research is clear that what nurtures that [resilience] is responsive parenting.”