Dr. Leonard Sax is a family physician, psychologist, and author who has written multiple books about children and parenting.
His books include Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge, but his most recent book is garnering attention for its title: The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups.
In the book, Sax includes an anecdote about a personal experience he had in his office: A child came in with a sore throat, and when Sax told the child that he was going to look at his throat, the child's mother added, "Do you mind if the doctor looks in your throat for just a second, honey? Afterward we can go and get some ice cream."
The child refused to open her mouth, so they had to restrain her in order to perform the strep test.
Sax was frustrated that the mother posed "open your mouth" as a question. "Parents are incapable of speaking to their children in a sentence that ends in a period," he explains. "Every sentence ends in a question mark."
While it can be good to offer your children options instead of just telling them what to do, Sax thinks it has gone much too far. Now parents are just focusing on making sure their children are happy all the time, instead of focusing on parenting them in a balanced manner. Sax believes parents need to maintain authority in their relationships with their children.
Sax offers six solutions for ways to spend meaningful time with your children and still discipline them accordingly: Make family meals at home a top priority, take screens out of the bedroom, limit screen use in public areas, teach humility, have an alliance between yourself and the school, and monitor what they do.
According to this doctor these solutions will lead to better parent-child relationships, and will benefit children in the long run.
Do you think Dr. Sax is right? Is it more important for you to maintain authority over your children or be their friend? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to SHARE this article on Facebook!
[H/T Fox 13]
