Why Good Parents Have Bad Kids: How to Make Sure That Your Child Grows Up Right

by E. Kent Hayes

Even well-meaning parents can, through lack of awareness, neglect their children’s most basic needs. And neglect can take many forms—from overindulgence to lack of communications. E. Kent Hayes has spent a lifetime working to advocate for children and their family. He has gleaned those lessons into this guidebook that explains how to avoid trouble before it starts and how

• Instill the value of delayed gratification in children who want it now
• Create a flexible day-to-day structure
• Talk with a noncommunicative teenager
• Balance permissiveness and discipline
• Help your child deal with negative peer pressure
• Handle problems, such as drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and vandalism
• Laugh with your child
• Build a lifelong loving relationship with your child

Why Good Parents Have Bad Kids  is essential reading for every parent, written by a noted child advocate and juvenile criminologist.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 23, 1988

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book on parenting. It didn't have trendy ways to raise your child, just good advice from a guy that was not only a parent himself, but also a social worker that dealt with many juvenile delinquents. He filled the book with great anecdotes of how their child-care system dealt with some of the worst kids that came in and how they ended up turning around. I don't know if I can really say there was anything that shouldn't already be common sense, like to actually pay attention to your children and have a structure that includes discipline when necessary. I wouldn't say he was either terribly conservative, nor liberal in his methods. As I write this review my two boys are 3 years and the other is 5 months, and I think it was a great time to pick up the book for the first time, but I will definitely be reading this book many times as my own children age. Even if I didn't agree with absolutely everything (which the author himself told the reader that they would not), I can't really recommend this book to other parents highly enough. 4.5/5 stars