Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Kind of interesting what passes for news - parents best to use tough love

Our society today is very permissive. We are taught to be tolerance to the point of extreme. A ripple effect of this is many parents think they are suppose to only love their children, never to be judgemental or discipline their children.

Why tough love is best: Parental warmth AND discipline produces best adults, admits Left-wing think-tank reports that both love and discipline help children:

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Taking a 'tough love' approach to parenting increases the chances a child will grow into a well-rounded, successful adult, a think-tank said yesterday.
Combining warmth and discipline means youngsters are more likely to develop skills such as application, self-discipline and empathy, according to a study.
The Demos report found these traits were shaped during the preschool years - more often as the result of 'tough love' parenting - and regardless of whether parents were rich or poor.

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Part of me wonders why is this even news, but given today's culture, maybe parents need to be reminded that their children will benefit from some discipline, as well as lots of love.

(Hat tip: EducationNews.org)


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Technorati tags: parenting, children

2 comments:

Happy Homeschooler said...

Yeah, you'd think there were bigger things to be reported in the news. LOL But I continue to see my blogging friends link to these types of articles. And once you link to it, and people click on that link, SEO tells the media that more people are reading the article and, therefore, must be interested in hearing more about it. I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong with reporting parenting beliefs, but when boiled down, this article actually says very little about details and specifics of what they MEAN by discipline.

I do believe in both love and in discipline. However, by 'discipline' I do NOT mean 'punishment.' They have two completely different definitions. And there is a distinctive difference found even in the Bible between previous fear-based punishment and grace-based discipline. It took me many, many years to understand the switch in the Gospels and beyond, but once it clicked and I began to see the difference in my children, I could no longer go back.

Henry Cate said...

I'm afraid that one of the reasons studies like are reported as news, is because it is news for many parents. I've known several parents who only loved their children, and did little discpline.

You make a good point about the focus of the discipline. We are looking for discipline that changes behavior. When a child spills milk on the floor, we don't beat them or send them to their room, we get out a rag and have them clean it up.