Rating: 
Summary: Too subtle to be of use
Review: When I picked up this book, I was surprised to find that Dr. Laura holds back, trying to balance her tough love advice with an odd compromising prose that I haven't seen in her before.Perhaps I was expecting too much. Having converted to the Prota-Subterfuge branch of Judao-Christianity, I find Dr. Laura a refreshing force in a clustered mess of celebrity healers.
While some of her theories on parenting are key in today's unstructured society, she lacks the spark that Dr. Laura is well known for. My therapist -a firm believer in the ten commandments-recommended this book to me because he supports the misunderstood harsh stance she takes, and felt that this particular publication could help me deal with my parent/ child issues. While the initial pages deliver a disciplinary aura that a hesitant man like myself desires, she tones down her stiff rhetoric by the second chapter. Now....I am not a parent, but my counselor said that my desire to be parented is a cry to be emotionally bullroped by a mother figure. Admittedly, I searched for secular forms of sensual abuse before I converted; I realize that is wrong. My counselor suggested that since I share similar views with Dr. Laura Schlessinger, that her writings on parenting would give me the ecstatic thrill of being shamed and abused by a shark of a media evangelist. By reading her scalding works, I could enjoy the luxurious thrill of her telling me what a horrible parent I will be one fine day. Her harsh delivery would nail my soul with passionate degradation, which in turn would free me from the "genuine guilt" of embracing secular masochistic excitement. Unfortunately, Dr. Laura drops her mean tone by the seventh page, and my longing to be emotionally abused flies out the window. Perhaps her art does not properly transfer to the written word. Perhaps if she restricted the messages of firm parenting to the "spoken word" form via audio cassette or video, good religious folks like us could drink in the undiluted punishment that we all know and love Dr. Laura for. Personally, I don't want her to give me a bland list of "things to do" to be a good parent; I want to feel the verbal lashing of the woman that many of us progressive Christian men see as the only true audio dominatrix.
Rating: 
Summary: DR. LAURA AT HER FINEST!
Review: While I have not entirely agreed with all the information Dr. Laura has given in one of two of her previous books, I do believe that this is one or her better books. She has a strong handle on the stamina, commitment and time it takes to raise children to productive, happy and well-adjusted adults. Children need discipline and while I have been one of those parents who raised children and did, indeed, "spare the rod" as Laura puts it, that does not say my children were not disciplined - on the contrary. As a counsellor who has studied behavioural psychology, my philosophy was to sit down with my children and have a heart-to-heart talk when it was called upon. As one of my daughters said to me at a very young age, "Why do you have to be that psycho-thing (psychologist)? Couldn't you just hit us like that lady in the supermarket hit her kids and get it over with?" So much for the philosophical approach! Punishment was not merely doled out to my children; they were asked to participate in choosing their own form of punishment for ill-fated deeds committed, particularly with my youngest daughter who was by far the most independent, and amazingly, her "punishment for the crime" was far more severe than I would have chosen. Today, all three are happy, well-adjusted adults leading productive lives, and I thank my lucky stars for that. Dr. Laura speaks out (and we all know she certainly says what is on her mind)on issues far beyond discipline. She covers sensitive issues such as abortion, and offers advice on drugs, violence and our children's rights to privacy. Again, one may not agree with absolutely everything Dr. Laura has to say, but she does make some very valid points to consider.
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