The Strong-Willed Child: Birth Through Adolescence

Rating:
Summary: What a Godly Man for our times
Review: It is so good to hear that there remain God-fearing people who are beating Christ's love into children. As I punished myself for my own impure thoughts, I was struck by how much better it would be to have a stern but loving man like Dr. Dobson administering the punishment to my red and swollen buttocks

Rating:
Summary: The power of humiliation
Review: While I agreed with Dr. Dobson when wrote that parents should beat their kids with sticks or paddles rather than with bare hands, I wondered why he didn't mention electrical cords, catte prods or stun guns. I like to call the latter, "Jesus' Thunder." Nothing get's a kid's attention faster than 50,000 volts of electricity arcing between two contacts.

I also thought Dr. Dobson failed miserably in teaching the power of humiliation. It's a great tool for punishing bad behavior. I used it myself a couple of weeks ago when I caught my 17-yr-old niece kissing a boy. I grabbed hold of her then and there and marched her to every trailer in the park to invite her peers to see her punishment. Once I had a crowd, I had her bare her butt and grab her ankles. Then I whipped her for a good half an hour with a tree branch (I had to improvise because Ofjoshua broke Jesus' Thunder while using it on her unruly Sunday School students). The crowd helped out by whooping and hollering. She won't be kissing boys anymore until she's married.

I'm sure Dr. Dobson has had many similar experiences. It's a shame he didn't share them with us.

Rating:
Summary: No stars - Dobson is sadistic
Review: Anyone who recommends that it's ok to hit a kid with a switch or a belt should be viewed with great suspicion.

This book is of the same cloth as Dobson's other child-rearing tomes: more of the "spank and pray" school. Dobson is all about adults imposing their wills on kids in all areas. He doesn't understand the difference between respect and fear, and that's the main fallacy behind his so-called theories.

Any bully can command fear - it takes some finesse, compassion and hard work to earn respect.

Rating:
Summary: The "Dr." is not in
Review: This guy is a complete hack. I work with children, and I see more confused, abused, and abusing children (drugs, rape, fights) from fundamentalist families than any other source. This type of parenting is a lie, and if you raise your kids this way please do it somewhere other than Schenectady, NY so I can live in relative peace.

Rating:
Summary: He is one who made our kids, our schools, and our society...
Review: the mess it is today. I almost threw up when I read the "review", Dobson is an AMERICAN TALIBAN, August 24, 2004
Reviewer: R. Blazak "Sociologist"
His is exactly the philosophy that got us into the mess we are in---Don't discipline your child, you may hurt their self esteem.

I went to college and became a teacher in the 1960s. During my career I worked with the results of Blazak's philosophy: question your superiors; get all the gusto you can get because you only live once; reward the positive, don't punish the negative; ignore bad behavior, reinforce the good; give warm "fuzzy wuzzies", not punishment; don't play competitive games, or use competition in the classroom, it builds aggression among some, and hurts the self esteem of others.
Then there were, believe it or not, special classes that let minors smoke in the classroom, and liberal professors and some teachers advocating making condoms available to school children.

We can thank these "liberal" sociologists, psychologists, professors, and teachers for the mess we are in today. Discipline has become a dirty word. Challenging teachers in the classroom has become the norm. Parents teaching children their "rights", and demanding that teachers not discipline their children is all too common. Parents refusing to let teachers keep their misbehaving and/or failing students after school, or not allowing them to come to Saturday school, then blaming the teachers for their child's failure.

I have several of Dr. Dobson's books. This is the kind of discipline and training we've abandoned in this country. If you like smart alec, uncooperative, reluctant, and sometimes dangerous students, then you'll love Blazak's alternative style to Dr. Dobson.

Our society is a result of people like Blazak who forced the rules and laws of society upon a questioning academic community. It wasn't conservatives like Dr. Dobsom. I know I watched it happen. Millions of older, probably retired, teachers will also attest to that. To make matters worse, young teachers have been taught this garbage and many of them live by the liberal philosophy, perpetuating the problem. Now schools are wondering how to handle these children of society's creation.

My advice is to read Dr. Dobson. Forget the religious part,if you wish, but use your common sense. Discipline is needed in every walk of life--athletics, music, academics,military, and much more. So, where is this discipline going to be taught, if not in the home?

Today's parents dump their children off at school, and expect us to feed them, wipe their nose, check their eyes, keep them safe, and, if we have time, teach. Then they blame the schools for all the behavior problems,academic problems, and societal problems that result from them handing over their responsibilites to other entities, and too often without support. I once had a parent tell me it was our job as teachers to teach the child how to behave--without discipline, of course.

This is the new American way; let the children run wild, express their worst feelings so we don't hurt their self esteem, then blame the bad results on society. Of course it's society's fault because we listened to liberals like Balzak for several decades, and look where it's got us. He would say we didn't intend that. Well, maybe not, but that's where you got us.

Just read the book and decide for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Dobson is an AMERICAN TALIBAN
Review: I read large chunks of this book before I knew Dobson headed the extreme right-wing Focus on the Family. As a sociologist, I thought it was some of the worst child rearing advice ever. Now that I know the truth about Dobson and his extremist agenda, it all makes sense. He just wants parents to raise mindless proles who will do what the talking heads on Fox News tell them. He is dangerous in that his advice will stunt children's intellectual development. As a PhD, I would warn parents to stay away from this book if they want to raise something besides dittoheads.

Rating:
Summary: Beat thy child in the name of God
Review: as a Christian mom, i have heard alot about dr. dobson, and know that he is well respected in the Christian community as an expert on family issues. i thought his book would be an excellent resource on raising children in a Godly way. however, i felt this book had WAY too much emphasis on corporal punishment. it seemed to be the author's first suggestion rather than a last resort. i know there are differing views on corporal punishment within the Christian community and in society at large, but this book advocates it too strongly. it is hard to enforce a "no hitting" rule with your child when your first reaction to his misbehavior is to hit him yourself. it is a mixed signal that is very confusing to a small child. i know alot of people believe strongly in this book as a "biblical" approach to child rearing, but i truly hated this book and would not recommend it to anyone. if you want a Biblical resource for child rearing, read the Bible, and seek out other resources.