Like our child acts the way he does because we don't discipline him right rather than because he has a physiological problem. ADD is probably over-diagnosed, but if a child truly has it, he can benefit from medication. Ah, the lovely sound of 'Because I said so' What sounds inappropriate to one reader, however, is like balm to another. Nikki Lardas, for instance, welcomes Rosemond's advice on take-charge parenting. We just have to set the bar high enough.
Homework is a good example.
Many parents are intimately involved in their children's assignments, spending hours hounding, pleading and coaxing the kids to complete their work. Sometimes they even do it for them. Don't get involved. Make it their responsibility. Cindy Durrett said that, after reading Rosemond's columns, she felt more permission not to be at her child's beck and call.