The 4 parenting styles are extremely helpful to understand as a parent-regardless of the age of your child. However this is of huge importance because parents are looking for guidance, ideas and ways to be the best parent they can be for the whole of their child's childhood. And, we all have our own childhood ‘lenses’ we see through, and we usually bring in a lot of attitudes, ideas and expectations that may be subconscious for us, but influential for our children.