| Remember the "good old
days," when kids, INCLUDING teens, showed some respect
for their parents and for authority figures in general? No?
Well, that was back in the '50s and before, but it began to erode in the
'60s, thanks to -- in part -- the hippies, the drug culture and the government
deciding that it needed to get more "involved" in (i.e., "take responsibility
for") the lives of individuals. (Thanks, LBJ!)
One part of respect that
was lost in all that is fear, the "stick"
part of "carrots and sticks." Along the way, we lost the basic concept
of personal responsibility and the clear understanding that our behavior
has real, actual consequences.
Our criminal justice system
is supposed to provide that at some level, religion has always had it in
there (well, most religions, at least) with some sort of punishment and
reward (Heaven and Hell in the Christian version), and our educational
system also had it for a while, but that's getting lost with a lot of namby-pamby,
coddling, wishy-washy psychologists, educators, etc., (many of whom were
part of the '60s drug culture, by the way) and other well-meaning but misguided
"experts"
undermining parental authority every
chance they get. (Don't even get me started on the woeful
inadequacy of the so-called "educational" system in this country.)
And it's getting worse -- well, at least until Dr..Phil
and a few other NON-wishy-washy, NON-coddling, NON-namby-pamby psychologists
came along and started to bring some good ol' common
sense and personal responsibility back
to the national consciousness.
"Speak
softly, but carry a big stick"
Theodore
Roosevelt
Using formal and informal
focus groups, our editors have collected information from parents on successful
and not-so- successful disciplinary strategies and techniques and have
distilled that information into a simple (but not necessarily easy) single
strategy to induce a misbehaving teen to change his or her behavior for
the better in only eight weeks.
The same plan CAN be condensed
into a four-week program (includes all the same materials, but the timeline
is shorter and the "stick" is not as big).
. |
