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Parents, No More ’60s!

By Mark Roth on July 1, 2010 at 8:46 am

I’m not familiar with John Rosemond. But this makes a lot of sense:

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the 1960s to be over and done with. That destructive decade has ruled American parenting for 40 years and pretty well ruined it in the process.

Before the ’60s, parents sought child rearing advice from their elders.

Since then, parents have sought advice from a professional class — which is to say, people like me. Courtesy of Dr. Joyce Brothers (Spock had nothing to do with it, really) we so-called “experts” were able to convince the American parent of a truly absurd proposition: to wit, that a 35-year-old who possesses a graduate degree in child psychology, has been married for five years and has one child, age 2, knows more about children and how to raise them properly than an 85-year-old woman who never finished the eighth grade but who raised 10 kids into successful adulthoods. Like I said, absurd.

[…]

It took a while, but I finally realized that children should not be allowed to freely express anything. The natural inclination of the child is anti-social, narcissistic. Children believe that what they want, they deserve to have, and because they deserve it, the ends justify the means. Tyrants believe the same thing. Therefore, children are tyrants by nature. Give a tyrant/child an inch, and the tyrant/ child will demand a mile.

[…]

Yes, American parents need to wake up from the 1960s, take the flowers out of their hair, roll up their shirtsleeves and get back to the work of raising good citizens, defined simply as people who would rather serve than be served, people with more other-esteem than self-esteem.

Source: It’s time for parents to get their heads out of the ’60s.

And here are some parenting / child-rearing / child-training books we sell:

Topics: Parenting | No Comments »

Summer Reading Tips

By Mark Roth on June 26, 2010 at 7:57 pm

For your consideration, five tips from Homeschool Parent….

Not every family homeschools during the summer, which means that reading may not be on their list of priorities. However, it’s very important to keep their minds working during these summer months to make sure when school starts back in the fall they are on track and ready to learn. Here are some tips for motivating kids to read this summer:

Combine activities with books.
Monkey See Monkey Do.
Relax the rules.
Visit the library.
Think outside the book.

To get the flesh for the tips, you’ll need to read Kelly’s whole piece. (It’s not long at all and includes some practical suggestions.)

Topics: Homeschool Helps | No Comments »