John Rosemond

Trusted family psychologist John Rosemond has a revolutionary message for today's parents: Your grandparents' generation knew a lot more about raising children than all of today's experts. The experts have turned child rearing into a complicated, exhausting chore rather than the simple, straightforward task it should be. In Family Building: The Five Fundamentals of Effective Parenting, Rosemond outlines the five key principles of traditional parenting that are crucial to raising well-behaved children today.

* It's about the family, not the children.

* Where discipline is concerned, it's about communication, not consequences; leadership not relationship.

* It's about respecting others, not high self-esteem.

* It's about manners and morals, not skills.

* It's about responsibility, not high achievement. 

Each chapter includes questions from real parents faced with real-life parenting challenges, and in his typical no-nonsense style, Rosemond provides practical solutions. Family Building restores common sense to parenting and puts the parents back in charge. Once again, John Rosemond delivers child-rearing wisdom that no parent should miss.

Booms in technology and mass media have created significant changes in society in the last two decades. The text in this revised book has been thoroughly updated to reflect today's society, yet the foundation of Rosemond's timeless and effective approach remains constant. He encourages families to return to tried-and-true, fundamental parenting truths that people did naturally before the "new science of parenting":

* Parents aren't their children's friends; they are their leaders.

* Parents are at the center of a family-not kids.

* Your marriage must come before your children.

Each chapter includes easy-to-relate-to questions from parents, which Rosemond answers with both common sense and a sense of humor. For families feeling overwhelmed by competing advice about parenting, this book will ground them with logical, proven approaches to the most significant challenges parents face today. From issues such as self-esteem and discipline to television and chores, this straightforward guidance will facilitate a return to parent-centered families where children are raised into responsible adults.

Rosemond does not write from the perspective of a psychologist, but with the common sense and authority derived from 30 years of counseling parents, and from his two children and seven grandchildren, some of whom he helped toilet train. He advises an old-fashioned approach to toilet training that would have earned Grandma's stamp of approval. This book is helpful, revealing, and funny. Best of all, the method works! Thousands of parents have used it to discover how easy toilet training can be.

With his trademark parents-take-control style, Rosemond covers everything from the basic how-to and troubleshooting issues to successful testimonies and proper encouragement. His straightforward and no-nonsense advice utilizes simple steps with proven results. No arguing, bribing, or cajoling necessary. It helps parents avoid common toilet-training mistakes, and leads the way to a diaper-free household.

In Parent-Babble, Rosemond asserts that America has been in the throes of an ever-deepening child-rearing crisis since the 1970s, and he explains how parents have moved away from the child-rearing basics of the 1950s and 1960s to focus on raising children with "high self-esteem."

But what could be wrong with high self-esteem? Plenty, according to Rosemond. High self-esteem is associated with anti-social behavior and little regard for others. In addition, children reared on postmodern psychological parenting theories are 10 times more likely to experience a serious emotional setback by the age of 16 compared with children who grew up in the 50s and 60s. In Parent-Babble, Rosemond deconstructs the faulty theories, points out the "experts" who have led parents astray, and calls for a return to values, a return to civility, and a return to raising healthy, happy, and productive adults.