As I write the ocuntry is still reeling from the bizarre riots and looting that occurred in August this year. There are many people offering their opinion and and repeating the phrase "lack of discipline". That might be part of it, but cannot be the whole. Will the generation that has benefited from parenting courses like this one grow up to commit such hate filled acts against strangers for no better motive than fun, gained through theft and destruction?
A lot of criticism is placed on the emphasis of praise and ignoring negatives to create confidence - does this confidence become arrogance in adulthood? I think that is simplistic - but neither do I think that one parenting style is better than an another. Parents need to be present in their children's lives but as they grow older children should be respected as adults and gradually be given responsibilities and be taught to consider other people first. If you are alienated from your family that is one evil, if you are alienated from society and only find meaning in destruction that is quite another. Gangs exist surely because people find greater sense of belonging there than they do in the home and greater acceptance - even if that is based on sharing destruction. We don't need "more discipline" as such we need more families where someone is at home to teach and love and cherish their chldren be that offering only "good enough" and terribly flawed it has to be better than the absence most children seem to be expereiencing where both parents are out at work to sustain their lifestyle - be that ever so basic or ever so luxurious presence is what is missing in family life, it is far more absent than discipline. What I have gained from the course is mainly to learn how to be present and to create and sustain positive local friendships vber and above distant ones because these people arte present for my children too where through no fault worse than distance my family are not
