Customer Reviews

The Strong-Willed Child

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

We have three beautiful children 2,4, and 6. My wife and I always ask the questions: Are we raising are children correctly? How come it takes screaming to get the kids to do something? Why does the simplest task seem like a production? Dr. Dobson has the answers, we've been using his approach for over 2 month now and are family has become closer. It doesn't take 30 minutes to get them to bed anymore, we setup bedtime rules and the kids follow those rules. Why, because we follow through with our threats, you must follow through. We have set up lots of rules in the past but know are rules are followed. Simple rules: No Hitting, No name calling, listen to your mother and father, bedtime is 8pm. Its a great book with great stories and the stories hit home.

My three year old was out of control. Tantrum city, thought he was the boss, and would even hurt his little brother. I was ready to try anything. This worked amazingly.

This book does NOT say "beat your child" despite others reviews. In fact, spanking makes up 5% of what DR. Dobson touches on. I too was anti-spanking, but with-in five days my son made a 360 degree turn! It took one well-administered spanking, a zero tolerance policy and an extremely calm demenour.

If you are at the end of your rope, give this book a try, and follow it's advice. You too will be amazed. Those who critized it's suggestions, in their own words, are still working through things. Have you ever yelled and screamed at your children in frustration? That just shows them that you are out of control, and they are responsible for making you this way. THAT IS CRUEL!

Please do not be afraid to discipline your child. I read this book over a month ago, and success continues to bloom. My son is a lot happier, he knows his bounderies and his little brother is thankful too!

I consider this book to be wonderful and would recommend it to any person. It gives you the confidence you lack because of today's worldly views on how they think our children should be raised. Our Bibles teach us the ways to raise our children, recommend reading Proverbs. Mr. Dobson follows this in his book and helps us parents to know that we aren't the only parent's experiencing this. After reading his book I have had great success with my two-year-old son. I don't feel all alone or like I am a failure in being the only mother of a strong-willed child anymore. It's helped me to know this is normal and given me better confidence in setting and sticking with our rules.

This is an excellent book on parenting! I have found that the suggestions Dr Dobson has made work wonderfully with my 3 year old son. Dr Dobson seems to have a wonderful understanding of children and what makes them tick. I also sense his tremendous love of children. He teaches us to guide the child in a way that they will learn self control. After all, isn't that what it's all about- to learn to control our sinful impulses. He also warns us AGAINST disciplining our children in anger. We should instead be stern disciplinarians while protecting their spirits. (that is their self-esteem and self worth) In closing, Dr Dobson admittedly did not originate the parenting principles of this book, they are from the bible.

Dobson's books divide people, as you can see from all these reviews. Really, if you're not a fundamentalist Christian, you're probably not going to be comfortable with all his talk about parental authority. I'm one of his fans, and think that 99% of his advice is very good. I disagree with him about the abortion debate and his views on the evils of porn, but on raising children he has a lot of sensible advice. He does not advocate child abuse -- he says that spankings should not be frequent and should be reserved for only the child's worst behavior. He says right in 'Dare to Discipline' that most of the spankings parents administer are a mistake, and the situation would have been handled better differently. I think that most of the people who read his books and accuse him of advocating abuse must have been abused themselves as children, and this has distorted their perspective.

The commentator who criticized him for labelling strong-willed children as 'bad' and compliant children as 'good' must be too upset to even read. HE SAYS RIGHT IN THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK THAT STRONG-WILLED CHILDREN HAVE THE MOST POTENTIAL FOR CREATIVITY AND LEADERSHIP. As someone who is a former strong-willed child and the parent of a strong-willed child, I don't have any problem with his characterization of the strong-willed as having the greatest potential and, at the same time, needing some extra firmness when it comes to parenting style.

I recognize my mother's ways of parenting in many of his examples, and I would rate my mother a 98 out of 100 for providing balanced, loving, and firm discipline. My mother rarely spanked. Nearly all of the time she was able to use gentler methods such as time-outs and firm lectures. One of the main reasons that these other methods worked because we knew that if we continued to misbehave, she was not afraid to spank. I am positive that no mother in the world ever loved her children more than my mother did, and this book is about that kind of parenting.

The book gives some excellent practical tips on how to handle children, but I have found that the books 'Never Too Soon' and 'Don't Be Afraid To Discipline' by Ruth Peters are my favorites. Ruth Peters is kind of like Dobson without the Christian doctrine and using alternative punishments to spankings. Dobson is better however at describing the love, love, and more love that must accompany parental authority in order to strike the right balance.

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

Dr. Dobson is a proven leader in the relm of child care, compassion, love and understanding. He is a foremost authority in child psychology and is listened to millions of people around the world. Do not for one minute think that those who critize his books or his methods are doing so with the best interest of the child in mind. This book will work. It is the farthest thing from "child abuse" imaginable. Child abuse is allowing a child to define his/her own boundarys, instead of providing loving, firm guidelines that the child can understand and still feel loved. Objections to this book are more likely objections to Christian living. And those who think Jesus would be opposed to this book have obviously not read the whole Bible.

Those pushing other books have most likely not even read this book...they are here only to try to redirect the readers. Have faith! This is an inspired book, by an inspired author...who has dedicated his life to helping the family and children. He has proven his methods work. He has three extremely respectable children who are grown now. In addition he is listened to on over 25,000 radio stations everyday worldwide.

I raised two strong-willed boys with Dr. Dobson's advice always ready to hand. When I look back, I know that without that advice, I would have been lost, and I know my sons would not have become the good and decent men they are today. This advice is still just as wise, just as immediate, and just as effective today as it was in the seventies. Most excellent book!

I have read this book over and over again. I have three boys ages .. 12, 13, and 16 and I can tell you as a single mother that I had a lot of fears of my boys getting bigger then I and taking advantage. In a world where moral decline is so acceptable, where parents are encouraged by police to let their children drink at home so they don't become a police problem. In a world where our children can drive cars, and play games that can physically endanger others but us as parents are responsible and those teens are JUST PLAYING HARMLESS GAMES.and in this day in age where pregnany and MULTIPLE abortions are seen as common place I was crying out for something that said YOUR CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE TO END UP THIS WAY. I found it in this book. My 16 year old boy, is not sexually active, he is not on drugs, he is not drinking, he is not running out of my house cause I have no control. None of the boys are. The small minded of those who have written poor reports on this book have taken what Mr Dobsen has written to the extreme, they focused on the negative, they allowed their preconcieved notions to mandate how they viewed the information in this book. I have NEVER used a belt or a rod on my children. I have set boundries however with productive disapline. Mr Dobsen advises that IFyou hit you do NOT do it with your hand as then the child fears you, as typically they never know it is comming if you just backhand them out of the blue.he merely is giving guidlines as to IF you choose this particular method EVER in your child rearing years you do so PRODUCTIVLY. And he does state that there maybe a time that you find it reasonable to do so, that maybe if we as parents were not so afraid of it..sparing the rod and spoiling the children is a phrase then maybe our lives as parents of these children would be more balanced. I do not hit my boys, it is part of the book that SO FAR I have not had to resort to, however the book did give me much more positive ways of dealing with strong willed children. My 16 year old is ADHD and NON DRUGGED. There fore my pride in him and what he accomplishes with firm guidence BEAMS

In the mid-70's to mid 80's I was so fortunate to have Dr. Dobson's books to read while raising 4 of my 5 children. I had a couple strong-willed kids and probably was one myself! It is a fine line in dealing with a strong-willed child because they usually have a tender spirit inside. Dr. Dobson helps us learn how to channel that stong will into a productive way of life. Many people have asked what my secret was for raising my kids...Dr. Dobson's wisdom and wit helped alot!