Dobson has an obsession with control that is very disturbing.His methods are mainly those of the schoolyard bully and seem to be contrived to raise kids who are afraid of you. Is that really the result you want?It's interesting that many cases of elder abuse involve grown children giving a long-overdue payback to the parents who beat them when they were young.

This is a heavily christian based book with a lot of Jesus references. That disclaimer should be put right on the cover. This book was useless to a non christian reader.

Any book that encourages child abuse is not Christian. People who have responded favorably to this book may have been looking for something that agreed with their already held convictions, or maybe they have scared their child into obeying because they are bigger and stronger and thus feel they have found something helpful. There are many good books on strong-willed children that are helpful in learning how to parent them. This is not one. He is selling books today because he was recognized years ago with writing a decent book on parenting. There has been some tremendous change. I would recommend parents NOT read this book. There are other ways of disciplining children that are not humiliating, violent and abusive. If you are Christian, would Jesus have dealth with children in this way?

I'm a college student now and my parents used this book to raise me. I suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome and will have flashbacks of my mom and dad being so incredibly angry and hitting me so hard my heart felt like it was about to burst. Dobson and every other parent who hits their child- you can call it spanking, whipping, smacking, whatever- should be in jail. My parents would also constantly tell me to stop "being defiant" and when I was a child I didn't have a clue what that meant. I will take my parents money but as soon as I'm independent they can go to hell. Avoid Dobson and go with Dr. Spock

I can see how this type of book would appeal to adults who despise children and want total control over them, adults who are willing to beat them with boards, whips and belts in order to force tiny children to "obey" and "respect" brute strength. Cloaking this kind of advice in words like "love" is just the sheep's clothing the wolf is hiding in. Anyone who calls children "nasty" "difficult" and "insane" and beats them with objects has a serious problem and shouldn't be around children at all. Much less giving out advice to others!There is no love in this book, the closest thing to a positive encounter between a child and parent is the author's experiences with his own father killing animals together. There are much better parenting books out there, try Sears & Sears.

My Mother read this book when I was a kid. It was just a justification for allowing my step-father to abuse me. I obeyed out of fear with a strong hatred. They always found something wrong with me, no matter how hard I tried. I never gave up my will, I just had to wait for my 18th birthday. I left home as soon as I could, and have been healing the trauma they inflicted on me. I refuse to speak to my step-father. I only speak to my Mother because she apologized for putting her needs over mine and giving me a rotten childhood. I am extremely willful today. All those years of forced obedience were enough for a lifetime, thank you very much. I'm an atheist too, even though my parents brought me to church every week. Science has a lot of evidence to show that physical punishment is not helpful. So, if you don't want your kid to grow up to be a rebellious, atheist adult who hates your guts DON'T READ THIS BOOK!