View image in fullscreen Illustration: Holly Szczypka/The GuardianA backlash against gentle parenting had been brewing for some time. Done properly, however, there isn’t much to separate the styles: true gentle parenting embraces boundaries and consequences, and Fafo doesn’t have to be punishing. “What many people have practised under the guise of ‘gentle parenting’ is actually high-intensity, child-centred, permissive parenting with very little attention to adult limits, power or context,” says Svanberg. It’s quite difficult to map politics on to some of these phenomena.”If there is a backlash against gentle parenting, it’s hardly new. Gentle Fafo.