Murder in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, my home town, has seen a rash of shootings of pollice officers and citizen murders over the past year. No one, from the mayor to the police commissioner, or even members of the press, has had the guts to trace the origins of this street violence. I'll say it: incompetent parenting. And at the heart of incompetent parenting is a religious belief system based on "spare the rod, spoil the child." Change this to " spare the rod, save the child" and the crime rate in Philadelphia would drop dramatically.

Summary

In Your Kids, Their Lives: A Parent's Guide to Raising Happy, Competent, Caring Children, Malinda Jo Muzi advocates for the children of America. She proposes that most of the information parents are getting about parenting is inaccurate or silly, and often downright harmful. In relying on the work of the most distinguished researchers in child development over the past 40 years, the author directs parents toward techniques that have proven to be most advantageous to parents and children.

The best a parent can do is provide their children with the kind of experiences, particularly at home, that are likely to move them in a direction that leads them to happy, competent and caring lives, and turns them away from the forces in society that work against their best interests.