Christ First Forum

It's not uncommon to hear older generations reminisce about the "good ol' days." But when it comes to child rearing, America's most widely-read parenting expert says those days saw better parents and better children.

"By the time a child is three years old, he ought to be paying more attention to his parents than his parents are paying to him. That's, today, a radical idea," says John Rosemond.

John Rosemond (syndicated family columnist)The well-known columnist says it would have not have been radical to someone who heard this 50 years ago because people up until the modern age understood this principle.

"The modern age is the age of 'psyco-babble' and parenting. Up until this age of 'psyco-babble,' people understood that you cannot effectively teach a child what you need to teach him, you cannot effectively disciple a child unless the child is in a position of being the student -- and that requires that the child be paying attention to you," the expert says.

Rosemond says the problem in most American families today is that most parents are paying so much attention to their children, that their children never get the message that it is their job to pay attention to their parents.

"So what you have by the time most children of three years old is children with a very pronounced attention deficit disorder that they take with them to school and simply never learn to pay attention to adult authority figures -- and as a consequence, have never learned to do what they're told," he adds.

The parenting authority adds that raising children should not be stressful, and if parents put their primary focus on their marriage, parenting will flow naturally and it will not be a stressful situation.

Rosemond made his comments earlier this week on American Family Radio's The Matt Friedeman Show.
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