We got another one....
My MIL gave us Bringing Up Boys for Christmas. I was so dissappointed. First Dare to Discipline and now this. I was also upset that his brother & his wife who have a baby only a couple months younger than LUcas have never received any Dobson books from her. Our lives aren't as together financially, but geesh, we're not inept parents.
But some good did come of it. DH spent hours reading it Christmas Day and it really made him think about how he *doesn't* want to parent. He said that Dobson gets a few things right, but very few. He kept reading the book, shaking his head sadly or angrily and then reading snippets that he found particularly offensive aloud. It did, however, make him think about what happened to him as a child. His father was never there for him, even when he was home; the only time his dad spent with him was to discipline him. One incident has always stayed with my DH, probably because his Dad brings it up at time to illustrate what a "trying" and "difficult" child DH was. When DH was 5 and said he couldn't eat his peas because the taste made him sick, his Dad forced him and he threw up at the dinner table. After being forced to clean up his mess, he was sent to bed where he criied and cried. Then his Dad came in later to yell at him for crying and being a baby. That was just one example of numerous similar ones of time spent with Daddy for DH.
He even cried a little when reading Bringing Up Boys. It was very cathartic for him, and for that I thank his parents for the gift. I guess that's rather ironic, though, isn't it?
