A return to discipline - could it really be? (part 2)
In part one of this essay series, I broke a story that I never thought I'd break…
It was a summary of a large New York Times expose` about how the newest trend in the treatment of ADHD and other childhood mood maladies (real and made-up) revolves not around some new drug that turns kids into mind-number zombies, but by good old-fashioned PARENTING. Well, sort of. What passes for parenting nowadays, anyway.
According to the Times article, two of the most influential organizations behind the mainstream's acceptance of modern pharmaceutical treatments for mood and behavioral disorders - the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescents Psychiatry - have both recently come out with unexpected recommendations…
That troubled or hyperactive kids be given drug-less options for resolving their behavioral issues BEFORE being hooked and stigmatized for life by Ritalin, Prozac and other profitable prescription poisons. These options range from traditional psychotherapy (also a sketchy course of treatment in my opinion - but better than drugs), old-school "behavior modification" techniques, and simply a more structured and disciplined type of parenting.
This sounds to me like a step in the right direction, and I applauded the APA and AACAP for bucking the trend toward the universal medication of children that Big Pharma's been lobbying for over the last few decades - and kudos the New York Times for giving the new recommendations so much ink…
But even though an article runs in the major media and some encouraging study results have shown that the "new" (old) approach actually works, everything is not all of a sudden rosy in kiddie American. Why?
Because we're talking about modern American parents here.
These are the same people who've been willingly brainwashed by the establishment into believing that the schools and the government should raise their kids for them. They've also been sold - by all the smiling faces on the parenting magazines and diaper-boxes - the notion that being a mom or dad should be nothing but laughs and tearful pride. These are the same folks that have been willing cohorts in the over-diagnosis of ADHD, and the unwitting cause of childhood depression by their lack of involvement in their kid's lives… I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Most parents will sell their childrens' souls down the river if it means a little easier time for them at home. If that means their kids walk around in a high purple haze so they don't have to do any real parenting - or suffer the typical irritations that come along with normal child-rearing - often as not, that's what happens…
And according to the article's description of the techniques parents must undertake to successfully undo the damage they created themselves in most kids diagnosed with ADHD (as just one example), it's a lot of work. The tactics themselves involve things like daily "report cards" to keep track of problem incidents - and a whole system of rewards for proper behavior. This is a bad scene, in my opinion. First off, it's way too much work for today's lazy parents to go through. Making kids pop those pills is a lot easier…
Beyond this, it makes good behavior a business transaction to a child - a way to barter and bargain for things they want. It's a bribe. It used to be that children were simply afraid to misbehave, and this kept them from being unruly. In the good old days, kids lived with a healthy fear of not only being punished, but also of simply letting down the parents.
Today, these things - fear and respect - are missing entirely from the parenting process. Except in those few families that are turning out well-adjusted kids nowadays.
Listen, I'm not suggesting that kids should be raised in an environment of fear or even any kind of corporal punishment - only that their behaviors should be kept in check by the threat of consequences, not the promise of rewards. Or the parental cop-out of addictive drugs.
Bottom line: If you're involved in the rearing of any children or grandchildren, try parenting them systemically instead of chemically - try letting them know that their best (and easiest) course of action is to live up to your expectations. Always…
And let them know that all that touchy-feely psychobabble they're hearing in school, from their friends' parents, and on the boob tube will land them nowhere but in a world of addicted, neurotic mediocrity. Like their guidance counselors.
That should be reward enough for them, don't you think?
Advocating "just" rewards, not just rewards,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. |
