Bill Corbett

It’s definitely a different world from the one we experienced as children.  We work harder today to create comfortable lives for our families and it’s hard to accept that our children don’t seem to appreciate what they have and what we do.  In so many ways it’s become a world of instant gratification with just about everything available 24-7 for our convenience.  But it’s up to us to teach our children gratitude through the example we set and the discipline we use at home.     Some parents think that discipline simply involves actions you take when your children misbehave and act out.  It’s not!  As a variation of the word “disciple,” which means to teach or to train, discipline means “the training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement,” and it’s an opportunity we have every time we are with our children.  Parents need to spend more time and effo...

There are two things that I gather up when I bring in the regional weekend paper from my driveway:  my cup of coffee and a roll of duct tape.  Included in that special edition paper is a national column called “Living With Children,” written by a certain family psychologist who often times spouts nonsense that makes my head explode; hence my need for the duct tape. In his latest column, this psychologist tells parents that they should not be wasting their time to get their children to cooperate, but instead, should be delivering direct orders.  He compares this necessary action like an ‘army officer would give direct orders to a private’ (his words, not mine).  But many parents like you and I have realized that autocratic parenting went out generations ago.  Though some families still subscribe to this style of parenting, many have realized that it doesn’t work anymore. What this psychologist suggests is that parents must control their children and i...