The 7 Worst Things Parents Do

Author(s): John C. Friel Ph.D.
Date     : January 1, 1999


Most "parenting" books have common goals (e.g how to raise a happy, moral, responsible, self-confident child that achieves his/her full potential). The books just disagree about the best way to achieve these goals. In this book, however, I found myself disagreeing with the stated goals of good parenting. The Friels describe several examples of parenting "failures" that I would consider successes. For example, if your 24 year old daughter says her mother is her best friend, she's a failure (and you've failed as a parent).
If your child graduates from college and turns down a good job across the country in favor of a lesser paying job closer to home, you've raised a dependent, clingy person who failed to separate from family appropriately. I guess one person's pathological intertwined relationship is someone else's good close family tie! Nevertheless, the book contains lots of good old-fashioned common-sense advice about raising children and I enjoyed the book thoroughly.


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