Parenting Teens With Love and Logic Parenting Adolescents for Responsible Adulthood Book

Short on love. At various points it advocates throwing out teens because helping them might cost a lot of money, and telling your daughter you'd be bummed if she was raped and cut up because she got involved with a weirdo in a chat room. Craziness!

I also don't care for their religious views. I wish books that use a Christian or bible based philosophy would state that on the cover. The bible is not a good basis for parenting, in my opinion. So, that makes this a bit short on logic too.

I think the stuff about throwing out teens, etc. comes directly from christian beliefs about how God (seen as a parental figure) treats "sinners" (damnation, punishment, etc). This is not my belief system, so I can't justify using it as a basis for parenting.

The stuff about sex was also quite religion based, which stands in the way of healthy, normal discussion with teens about sexuality. There is a section in the book about a mom talking with a 15 year old about why early sex is bad, it's all about "the darn bugs have a lot more time to gnaw away at the cervix of the uterus; they can make it pretty ragged", it's just ludicrous. How about a discussion that's age appropriate and factual? Fifteen year olds can handle a lot of information about sex that's specific and scientific. How about "we think it's healthier to avoid sex until marriage (or whatever) because you are safe from pregnancy, stds, emotional problems, etc." and actual scientifically accurate info, like birth control effectiveness, std statistics, etc.? Scary talk about "the darn bugs" is plain idiotic.

I like the idea of preparing teens for responsibility, but I'm not sure this is the best approach.

There is nothing here for parents of teens with big problems, except the advice to "seek counseling". (I recommend "The Explosive Child" for parents of kids with anger problems or depression.)