If you put twenty parents in a room together, they will all have

When Cynthia Bailey declared: “If you put twenty parents in a room together, they will all have different parenting styles due to how they were raised and how they choose to raise their children. To each their own!” she spoke a truth that has echoed through the centuries, though seldom uttered so plainly. For the way of parenting is not one path carved by stone, but a thousand rivers flowing toward the sea of the future. Each river takes its own bends and curves, shaped by the mountains of ancestry, the storms of experience, and the choices of the heart.

In the days of the ancients, it was known that the home was the first school and the parent the first teacher. Yet even among neighboring tribes, the ways of raising children differed. One clan might value discipline above all, while another honored freedom of spirit. One culture praised silence and obedience, while another cherished song and questioning. Thus, Bailey’s words remind us that how we were raised casts a long shadow upon how we choose to raise. No parent begins with a blank slate — they carry the traditions of their forebears, reshaped by their own decisions in the present.

Consider the tale of Spartan and Athenian parents in ancient Greece. In Sparta, boys were taken from their homes to be trained in strength, endurance, and loyalty to the state. In Athens, by contrast, children were taught letters, music, and philosophy, prepared to become thinkers and orators. Both peoples raised children with love for their future, yet their visions of that future were vastly different. Who, then, was right? Bailey’s saying, “To each their own,” suggests that neither way can claim ultimate supremacy, for each arose from the soil of its own history and its own ideals.

Her words also speak to the diversity of the human soul. Every child is different, carrying within them a spirit that cannot be bound to a single method. What nurtures one may wound another; what strengthens one may overwhelm another. To imagine that one single style of parenting can fit all is to deny the uniqueness of human life. The wise parent, therefore, is not the one who forces their child into a mold, but the one who adapts, who listens, who learns from the child even as they teach.

But here lies the challenge: when parents gather together, differences in style often breed judgment. One criticizes another for being too strict; another whispers that their peer is too soft. Bailey’s wisdom offers instead a call to respect. “To each their own” is not a cry of indifference but of humility — the recognition that one family cannot know all the trials of another, nor can one parent claim mastery over the art of raising the next generation. Respect, then, becomes the foundation of harmony among parents, just as patience becomes the foundation of harmony within the home.

What lesson must we take, O listener? That parenting is as diverse as humanity itself, and this diversity is not weakness but strength. By honoring many ways of raising children, we expand our understanding and broaden our compassion. Parents must resist the temptation to judge quickly and instead seek to learn from one another. The discipline of one may inspire the gentleness of another; the creativity of one may awaken the practicality of another. Together, these different rivers of wisdom nourish the great sea into which all children flow.

Practical actions follow: let parents speak openly of their experiences without fear of mockery. Let communities create spaces where differences in parenting styles are shared as gifts, not weapons. Let each parent remember that respect is a mirror — what you give to others will be returned to you. Above all, let parents hold fast to humility, knowing that even after years of raising children, they, too, are still learning.

Thus, Bailey’s words should be carried as a teaching across the generations: that every parent walks a different road, shaped by the past yet forging the future. And though their steps differ, their destination is the same — to raise children in love, in strength, and in hope. Let us not quarrel over the paths, but honor the journey, and bless each family as they walk their own way.