James Dobson Quotes

I love that phrase that parents say to their children when they cry: 'I'll give you something to cry about.'

I know that many people disagree with the way I disciplined my child. I also understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate.

Fussing over children who cry only encourages them. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

How do you scare some sense into a child who doesn’t fear death?

Parents who discipline their child by discussing the consequences of their actions produce children who have better moral development , compared to children whose parents use authoritarian methods and punishment.

There's no such thing as a tough child - if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender.

A strong-willed child - a strong-willed child, more than anyone else, needs to learn to use emotion and discussion to resolve issues. That's the last child in the whole world you want to hit.

For example, parents who talk a lot to their children have kids with better language skills, parents who spank have children who grow up to be violent, parents who are neither too authoritarian or too lenient have children who are well-adjusted, and so on.

When gentle persuasion [of children] falls on deaf ears, we resort to ridicule and rebuke. Then we return to threats and punishment. This is the modus operandi of a mutual frustration society.

Obviously, you want to teach your child between right and wrong, respect and being kind to others, whether it's their sisters or parents. You try to teach them by example, talk to them and explain certain situations. But there's also a time to put them in time out or let them know they've made a mistake and try to learn from it.

Let your kids pick their punishments. Our instinct as parents is to order our kids around. It's easier, and we're usually right! But it rarely works.

I don't think you should reprimand your child for everything you're feeling because for them it's as serious as when something happens in our day and we get upset about it.

Before you beat a child, be sure yourself are not the cause of the offense.

Those children who have been most chastised seldom make the best men.

It's easy to manipulate your children when they're absolutely sure you're stupid.

If you want your children to listen, try talking softly - to someone else.

I read one psychologist's theory that said, "Never strike a child in your anger." When could I strike him? When he is kissing me on my birthday? When he's recuperating from measles? Do I slap the Bible out of his hand on Sunday?

I was a physical education major with a child psychology minor at Temple, which means if you ask me a question about a child's behavior, I will advise you to tell the child to take a lap.

I had four children. And my youngest when we started was like, oh, gosh, 2 or a little less. And sometimes my kids would say to me, you know, how come you don't scream at those kids on television like you do us?

That was interesting, to find that it wasn't hunger that caused children to become bullies on the street. The bulliness was already in the child, and whatever the stakes were, they would find a way to act as they needed to act. … Intelligence and education, which all these children had, apparently didn't make any important difference in human nature.

You can't punish a child who is acting out because of sensory overload.

Some strong-willed children absolutely demand to be spanked, and their wishes should be granted. Two or three stinging strokes on the legs or buttocks with a switch are usually sufficient to emphasize the point, 'You must obey me.'

Obviously, discipline is necessary for children. Training is necessary for children. Just like if you want to train a vine, you have to apply physical manipulation to get it to go where you want it to go, but as it learns, then you don't have to do that.

A child can be taught not to do certain things, such as touch a hot stove, pull lamps off of tables, and wake Mommy before noon.

The only form of action open to a child is to break something or strike someone, its mother or another child; it cannot cause things to happen in the world.