John's Articles
Resolutions for a New School Year
Posted on 8/16/2023
With a new school year upon us, it might be wise for parents of school-age children to make some resolutions, as in promises to themselves to change certain behaviors, avoid certain pitfalls,...
Read MoreWhat Constitutes a Good Mother?
Posted on 5/7/2023
With Mother's Day upon us, I’m going to talk about mothers—one in particular. To begin with, assuming one believes his or her mother is worthy of admiration, then said esteem ought...
Read MoreRosemond’s Bill of Rights for Children
Posted on 3/21/2023
In 1993, President Clinton signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty that extends to children the rights to associate with whom they please and have...
Read MoreLeadership vs Discipline
Posted on 9/20/2022
A mother recently asked my advice concerning a discipline problem she was having with one of her children. I asked her to define the word discipline. She thought a moment and answered, “Well,...
Read MoreA 3-Point Plan to Get Kids to Do Their Own Homework
Posted on 8/16/2022
Q: The school our 10-year-old daughter attends believes parents should micromanage homework sessions – they call it “being a homework buddy.” As a consequence, our daughter believes we...
Read MoreToday’s Kids Have No Idea What They’re Missing
Posted on 5/24/2022
I grew up in the “You’re Making a Mountain of a Molehill” Era, also known as the Age of “Children Are Starving in (fill in the blank with some remote place)," and by golly, I’m a better person for...
Read MoreIs Vaping Ok for High School Senior?
Posted on 2/15/2022
Q: Our son, a senior in high school, is vaping. He claims he does it to control his anxiety. I worry about him getting into harder drugs when when he goes to college this coming fall. What’s your...
Read MoreThe Futility of Reasoning With Children
Posted on 5/4/2021
Many if not most if not almost all of today’s parents believe in magic words. They do so because the mental health professional community has for fifty years or so told them that children can be...
Read MoreMom, Stop Checking Kid’s Homework
Posted on 4/6/2021
Many times have I warned parents of the pitfalls of micromanaging their children’s academic responsibilities lest said children deduce that the responsibilities in question are not theirs at all...
Read MoreMicromanagers Are Their Own Worst Enemies
Posted on 3/30/2021
To most folks, micromanagement has to do with tasks or performance. The micromanaging parent, for example, is generally thought of as one who hovers over a child’s homework or academics in...
Read MoreIt Is Not Necessary to Help Your Child With Homework
Posted on 11/26/2019
After a recent talk in South Florida, women came up to me in droves asking, “How much should I help my children with their schoolwork?” That not one man asked the question...
Read MoreChildren Do Best in School When Parents Do Not Monitor Progress
Posted on 10/29/2019
The Portal. It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, the gateway to an alternative universe that lures, then traps the unwary in its nefarious web of illusion, where things are...
Read MoreA Trophy Child Is Not a Happy Child
Posted on 9/4/2019
Proving, once again, that fact is stranger by far than fiction, a grandmother recently asked me what she should do about her daughter-in-law who, despite her husband’s increasingly meek...
Read MoreChild Raising vs Parenting
Posted on 4/23/2019
There is child raising and there is “parenting.” America replaced the former with the latter in the 1970s and it’s been downhill ever since. My mother – a single parent during...
Read MorePublic Education Myths and Facts
Posted on 2/6/2019
As regards nearly every public policy topic these days, myths abound, but few mythologies rival that of public education. A sample: <b>Myth: Smaller classrooms promote better...
Read MoreOut With 'Parenting,' in With Child-Rearing
Posted on 1/29/2019
There is “parenting” and then there is bringing up, rearing, or raising children. The difference is night and day; so are the outcomes, short- and long-term, to all concerned, meaning every single...
Read MoreParenting of the Past Is Better Than Today
Posted on 12/19/2018
A Wisconsin pediatrician wants his newspaper to eject my column, giving as one of his complaints that I hew “to the idea that the world of the 1950s was the be-all and end-all of...
Read More9-Year-Old Daughter Says She Doesn't Like School
Posted on 11/28/2018
Q: Our 9-year-old daughter recently announced to us that she doesn’t like school, doesn’t want to go, and doesn’t want to do the work. We’ve been unable to get a coherent reason out of her and...
Read MoreThe Great Pre-K Debate
Posted on 8/28/2018
It has long been known, but only spoken of in hushed tones by university professors sitting in darkened rooms wearing Fat Elvis masks, that pre-Kindergarten “jump-start” (aka, “push-down”)...
Read MoreDon’t Go Down the Road of ADHD Testing
Posted on 4/17/2018
Q: Our son, age 8, did fine in school in first grade, but has struggled in second. We’ve taken your advice and not helped much with his homework other than occasional and brief “consultations.”...
Read MoreWe Have a Child, Teen Mental Health Crisis in U.S.
Posted on 4/11/2018
Do we – here in the USA, that is – or do we not have a child and teen mental health crisis and if the answer is yes, we do, then what should be done about it? Without doubt, the...
Read MoreLet Kids Run Their Own Sports Programs
Posted on 2/28/2018
Thirty-something years ago in this column, I offered a free (expenses-only) speaking engagement to any community that would abolish all adult-organized-and-run children’s sports programs...
Read MoreTreat Kids Like They're No Big Deal
Posted on 9/20/2017
I am a member of the last generation of American children who were no big deal. No one made a big deal over me, ever. Not my mother, my father, or anyone else. For my parents, raising me properly...
Read MoreMicromanaging Weakens Child's Success in School
Posted on 8/22/2017
Q: Our son attends first grade at the local public school. At the beginning of the school year, all the parents were basically told that we are expected to go to the school’s parent website every...
Read MoreDo Your Homework Before Choosing a School
Posted on 5/30/2017
Q: We have just moved and are seeking a new school for our two children – 6- and 8-year-old boys. They are smart, respectful of adults, and creative. We know that sounds like typical bragging, but...
Read MoreWhat Constitutes a Good Mother?
Posted on 5/16/2017
By the time this column appears in most papers to which it is distributed, Mother’s Day 2017 will have come and gone. Nonetheless, I’m going to talk about mothers—one in particular. ...
Read MoreHome Alone: Is Your Child Ready?
Posted on 3/9/2017
For some folks, the phrase "latchkey child" rings of parental neglect. Yet, unlike in the movies, most kids who are left unattended in an empty house do just fine, emotionally and otherwise....
Read MoreHow Much Homework Is Enough?
Posted on 1/26/2017
One of the most unfortunate things that the never-ending rollout of "education reform" has spawned is an overemphasis on <i>quantity</i> where homework is concerned. The following letter, sent to...
Read MoreWhat to Do About a Poor Report Card
Posted on 1/24/2017
<i><b>How to transform bad grades into a learning experience -- and into better results.</b></i> When your child brings home disappointing grades, don't panic, and don't lose your cool. Studies...
Read MoreParent Help With Homework Is a Generally Bad Thing
Posted on 9/13/2016
Amanda Johnson, a second-grade teacher in Laramie, Wyoming, has caused quite a stir both among her colleagues and constituents and—because her educational incorrectness was covered by national...
Read MoreKudos to Catholic School's 'Problem Solving' Sign to Parents
Posted on 9/7/2016
Just when I am teetering on the edge of despair concerning the state of child rearing in America, dwelling much, much too obsessively on the damage being done to children and the nation by parents...
Read MoreTake the Drama out of Math Homework
Posted on 8/30/2016
Q: Our sixth-grade son has always been an excellent math student. This year, however, he melts down every time he does math homework. Within minutes, he becomes highly agitated, begins crying,...
Read MoreDon't Micromanage Homeschooled Children
Posted on 5/17/2016
Q: I homeschool my three children, ages are 8, 6, and 5. The older two have a very poor attitude about doing school, especially math, and the younger one is starting to pick up on it. Their poor...
Read More'No' Is Best Answer When Mom and Dad Disagree on Parenting Issue
Posted on 3/15/2016
Q: Is three hours of one sport once a week too much for a 7-year-old? This sport meets from 6 - 9 PM. It is nearly 10 PM before child is in bed (as opposed to usual 8:30 bedtime). My husband...
Read MoreIt's Common Sense to Put Marriage First
Posted on 3/1/2016
I never cease to be amazed at the reactions people sometimes have to things I say. Most recently, a significant number of folks—women, all—were outraged over something I posted online: In a...
Read MoreSomething's Gotta Give, and That Something Is Electronics
Posted on 2/2/2016
Q: We would like to limit our 16-year-old son’s video game and cell phone time. We think homework should come first and then free time. He wants to relax with his video game and phone after...
Read MoreParenting Memes
Posted on 12/15/2015
According to Wikipedia, a meme is "an idea…that spreads from person to person within a culture". A meme is analogous to a mental virus—although not necessarily bad—that “catches on” relatively...
Read MoreThe Very Essence of Effective Discipline
Posted on 6/9/2015
Two months ago, I conducted a two-day small-group “parent retreat” during which I talked about, among other things, the legitimacy and power of “because I said so.” One of my missions is to...
Read MorePerhaps There is Still Hope!
Posted on 4/29/2015
A list of some of the more memorable elements of pre-1960s parenting is in constant circulation on the Internet and is especially popular with people my age who can for obvious reasons relate. The...
Read MoreFear Trumps Facts
Posted on 4/7/2015
Copyright 2015, John K. Rosemond One of the signs of these confused and confusing times we live in is that facts don’t matter. What matters are feelings and opinions, which are...
Read MoreSociability for Shy Child
Posted on 3/24/2015
Copyright 2015, John K. Rosemond Q: Our 7-year-old is very shy. He doesn’t enjoy the sort of social activities, including sports, that other kids his age are generally involved in and...
Read MoreParent Involvement
Posted on 11/11/2014
Why are young adult children emancipating so much later than they did in 1970, when the average age of male emancipation (independent living, paying one’s own bills) was 21? Why do...
Read MoreApache Blackhawk Parenting
Posted on 9/23/2014
A second-grade teacher writes: “I teach in a very competitive school where parents have developed a ‘mob mentality’ for bullying administrators and teachers. They have gone beyond helicopter...
Read MoreParents Helping with Homework
Posted on 9/9/2014
Q: I homeschooled my oldest, an 8-year-old boy, until this year. He started third grade in public school in August. As a homeschooling mom, I was not a micromanager and don’t want to...
Read MoreThe Ticket System for Corrective Discipline
Posted on 4/28/2014
I developed "Tickets" in response to the observation that time-out only works with children who are already fairly well behaved. (Then again, just about any demonstration of parental disapproval...
Read MoreOut of the Garden
Posted on 4/28/2014
Occasionally a behavior problem is so BIG that nothing short of what I call "nuclear discipline" will do. Your great-grandparents called it "lowering the boom." Regardless of terminology, the...
Read MoreHomeschooling After Hours?
Posted on 12/24/2013
Q: I homeschool my two children, ages seven and nine. The school day lasts from eight-thirty in the morning until two o'clock in the afternoon, after which they usually do homework for an hour or...
Read MoreGifted ... With Laziness
Posted on 8/20/2013
Q: Our 9-year-old son Bobby is very intelligent and capable of doing good work in school when he wants to, but he is generally just downright lazy. As a result, he makes mediocre grades and we...
Read MoreGood Old Days
Posted on 8/6/2013
Sometimes, the so-called "good old days" really were better. For example, if the data is correct, then the state of parenting in America has been in slow but steady decline since the...
Read MoreNanny Interaction
Posted on 7/9/2013
A mom asked me a most interesting and currently pertinent question the other day: "How much one-on-one interaction should take place been a nanny and a child under her supervision?" The...
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