This chart is extremely helpful in showing the correct way to guide your children and how to provide consequences, positive and negative, for their behavior. In contrast we have found the Ezzo's explanation of discipline to be an excellent resource, for the author's realize, as most parents do, that disciplinary issues are not always black and white. Another point on which we differ from the Cummins is their attack on the Ezzos assertion that children do not complete a family, but expand it. We agree with this and we see no contradiction between it and our Catholic faith. When we were betrothed the priest said that when we became husband and wife we would be a family.
Infertile couples are still a family.
A family with one child is as much of a family as one with ten children. They are not and cannot be. They are part of the family. The Ezzos assertion that the husband and wife are the center of the family is very true, for if that relationship is weak, or nonexistent, the whole family suffers irreparably. Moms and dads need to make their relationship a high priority because they will be together for their entire lives, while their children will move on to pursue their own vocations.