Bringing Up The Boys Analysis

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Ishata Gassama Due: October 29, 2014 Dr. Cilliberti EDUC 311.101 Bringing Up the Boys by James Dobson Jr. Dr. Dobson is a devout Christian and doesn’t hide that from the reader. He wears it like a badge of honor and touts some very conservative beliefs. If that bothers you, or if you already have an opinion of him and his ideals, then it can be very challenging to understand the author’s viewpoint of raising male children. In Bringing Up the Boys, Dr. Dobson adopts some pretty strange ideas. There are real differences between boys and girl, and those differences are good things, and we should embrace them. He explains that there really is such a thing as right and wrong, and we should…show more content…
It’s time to get started.” (Dobson, 110) The letting go process is dreaded by most parents because it is a time where you have to stop being the "too- protective" parent and give your boy the freedom he deserves as an individual. This process can be seen as a good thing also because one is able to see the fruit of their labor and watch as their child grows and flourishes down the right path because of the parents teaching and lifelong lessons that they have passed down. Either way one thinks about it, the process must still be done. Boys will never stay little boys forever and once they start to believe that they are growing up they will take that mindset and run with it. Dobson stresses to not be afraid of that point in a boy's life when you must let them go but be proud and never stop caring or try to be close to your…show more content…
Dobson is “Rules without relationships lead to rebellion.” (Dobson, 217). I am a living witness of this quote and how my parents raised me personally. I grew up in a household without my father where my mother and grandmother played the role of father and mother. However, my mother was not the parent figure I clung to always, but more so my grandmother. My grandmother and I had a great relationship where I could tell her anything, we could go shopping or out to eat together. Whenever I got in trouble my grandmother was always there to reprimand me, but also be kind and caring and assure me that she still cared and loved me even though I was in trouble. My mother and I had a total opposite relationship where I always felt anything I did was never enough for her and she never saw the good I would do or appreciate it. As a result I tended to not be around my mother a lot or be able to confide in her at all. I resented her and did not feel like she was a true parent because she was always yelling or correcting me about something I would do wrong. Therefore I began to rebel. Just as Dobson stated in his book, when the relationship is not there the child tends to rebel. Personally I felt like my mother did not care. That is why I did not care to have a relationship with her. I believe most times children's actions are based off of how they are treated by their parents. They do not just feel angry at their parents when their
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