By Dr James Dobson
The mother of a preschooler asked me how she could raise her little girl so as to minimise the chances of adolescent rebellion down the road. She had seen teenagers get into drug abuse and premarital sex and other harmful habits, so she wanted to know if there was anything she could do to set up a more tranquil adolescence.
I told her that when I was a kid, my parents kept me out of trouble with a battalion of rules. They had regulations for every misbehaviour, and so did most other parents. And then the culture reinforced those rules and, somehow, it usually worked out pretty well. But that won’t get the job done today. It’s a different world, and there are just too many opportunities for kids to go wrong. They still need boundaries and limits but something else is required. They need the motivation to do what’s right, and that desire to live responsibly comes principally from a loving relationship by parents who have invested themselves in their children. Parents need to make a concerted effort to build bridges to their kids, starting very early to have fun as a family.
From TODAY, Voices - Wednesday, 13-May-2009
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