Parenting programs come in

Tari Niemeyer — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:51:00 -0500

Parenting programs come in all shapes and sizes, with Love and Logic being just one of many. The Love and Logic program is a tool kit for parents and educators. This program assists adults in finding ways to be consistent while showing empathy and warmth towards children. It suggests ways to help children take ownership of and solve problems. This program will surely not solve every parenting issue, nor will it answer every question, but it does offer a perspective to what is felt by many parents and teachers as a complex and challenging endeavor. Parents attending these sessions will learn common sense strategies that may assist them in raising happy, responsible, and respectful children. That said, no parenting program has ever received universal endorsement. Our aim is to present information in an educational atmosphere where individuals can make decisions about what is best for them and the children with whom they interact. I would invite you to further consider the program by watching and listening to video and audio clips at http://www.loveandlogic.com. Also, if I can assist you in any way, please feel free to call or email me at 320-234-8540 or tari.niemeyer@ridgewater.edu

The opening statements of

Nurse Reader — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:08:37 -0500

The opening statements of this article are actually quite telling. Yes, Love and Logic (L&L) is a program to make *parents* feel good about parenting, but while exerting high levels of detached control over children. While superficially sounding like a good bet, on closer inspection the L&L program has little to do helping children be happy and responsible.

This program suggests specific techniques that are borderline abusive: e.g. sending children to school without street clothes or food, giving children no explanations, and urging parents to deliver repeated sarcastic one-liner responses (e.g. "It must be a bummer having a parent who doesn't care.") that rob children of valuable opportunities for parent-child interactions. Some dubious techniques may lead children, especially young ones, to feel abandoned.

And L&L inventors do recommend starting with infants. For example, they suggest consequencing infants for dropping food from their highchair, as if infants do this to be "naughty" rather than learning about the world. This alone shows a disturbing ignorance of child development.

The L&L website refers readers to two documents called "research.* This is deceptive. These surveys of parent satisfaction (after taking a L&L course) have not been published. They're not even dated. And they have nothing to do with the impact of L&L on children.

L&L was invented by Foster Cline and Jim Fay at the same time Cline was starting up a highly abusive fringe psychotherapy called Rage Reduction. Google Foster Cline and Rage Reduction for some interesting reading.

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Parenting programs come in

The opening statements of