Many people see natural parenting the way God has intended humans to bring up their children, i.e. as guided by your gut feelings. Millions of children are raised this way all over the world, and they are being raised very successfully. However, there are other types of parenting too. There is guided parenting, where parents learn how to parent through books, workshops, research, journals and articles. Even though proponents of guided parenting often possess vast academic knowledge about the subject, many aspect of parenting still puzzle them.

Every animal on this planet has parenting instincts. Every species raise their young and care for their young in a particular manner, whether it be fish, dogs, cats, birds, or wild animals. Human beings have their own style as well. Relying only on gut feeling can take one very far in successfully raising your children. Often, to much information, particularly conflicting information, has the ability to cause inaction because of uncertainty.

For example, breast-feeding a child is totally natural. Normally, one need not teach the mother or the baby how to do this. However, there are so many advertisements, articles, and TV shows on the "right way" to do it, that the mother feels lost even on this basic matter. The same applies to more complex matters such as nutrition, how to feed a child, and other such basic matters.

If you go back some 30 or 40 years you will find that natural parenting was very common and quite successful. Nowadays parents almost feel obliged to research every aspect of their task and go to workshops, which tends to over-complicate something for which we have in-born skills.

You will find that today natural parenting has taken a back seat. Parents today pay more attention to what the latest research says about how to raise children, instead of letting the auto-pilot take over. More often than not, parenting suffers when natural parenting is shoved to one side. Children need to be free and happy, and a growing movement is beginning to see how natural parenting can create the environment for children to naturally prosper.

It is very difficult for a natural bond to form between parent and child when the child is raised according to someone else's idea of what is proper and correct. Rather, it needs the 'I feel right about this' method of parenting. Trusting your gut is the essence of natural parenting, and even though you'll still make mistakes, know that your kids appreciate the fact that you're just human.