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Do I need to add an apostrophe 's' to parents (parents') in the sentence below:

Which is correct:

Option A: This study seeks to compile recommendations for hearing parents parenting children with a hearing impediment.

Option B: This study seeks to compile recommendations for hearing parents' parenting children with a hearing impediment.

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    Both: with Option A, the recommendations are for the parents, and with Option B for the parentING; both make sense. – Brian Donovan Sep 7 '20 at 13:25
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    Parents parenting is awkward, so no apostrophe gonna fix that. Maybe parents raising. Maybe parents raising a child with a hearing impairment. Typically, the study will not say what it will do, only what it will seek to do. – Yosef Baskin Sep 7 '20 at 13:28
  • I confess the form parenting has always struck me as a bit barbarous, since the -ent- and -ing bits are both on the same grammatical job of turning something else into a present participle. – Brian Donovan Sep 7 '20 at 13:30
  • Thanks for the helpful responses. I realize it sounds awkward, but it must be 'parents parenting' as this is the focus of the paper. – Joe Sep 7 '20 at 13:37
  • 1. […] parenting children is a reduced relative clause: = […] for hearing parents [who are] parenting children with a hearing impediment. 2. […] for(prep.) {hearing(adj.) parents(n. and subject) [who(rel.pron.) are(v.)] parenting (pres. part.) {children(n.) with a hearing impediment.}} = preposition(for) + Noun Phrase = modifier modifying “recommendations”. – Greybeard Sep 8 '20 at 8:47
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No apostrophe is necessary since "parenting" here is acting as a normal verb and not a gerund. As it is acting as a verb it is something the parents are doing, not something they 'own' in any sense.

If you said "The study provides recommendations for parents' parenting of children with a hearing impairment" the apostrophe would be needed as "parenting" would then be acting as a noun and the parenting would be a concept or action which was 'owned by' the parents rather than an action they were performing.

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