Dr. Becky Kennedy, the psychologist most associated with gentle parenting, is walking the term back for "sturdy": "Boundaries are things you tell people you will do and they require the other person to do nothing," meaning the parent acts, not negotiates. Willamette Week reports she has named the overcorrection: kids' feelings now dictate parent behavior.
Parents are already moving: a Talker Research survey of 2,000 parents found only 32 percent of Gen Z still practice gentle parenting, many shifting to "cycle-breaking." The first study of it found half of practitioners talk through misbehavior as it happens, which can reward it.
It is about who decides when the argument ends, not the label.
