Product Description

Sensible advice and caring encouragement on raising boys from the nation's most trusted parenting expert, Dr.James Dobson. With so much confusion about the role of men in our society, it's no wonder so many parents and teachers are at a loss about how to bring up boys. Our culture has vilified masculinity and, as a result, boys are suffering. Parents, teachers, and others involved in shaping the character of boys have lots of questions. In Bringing Up Boys, Dr. Dobson tackles these questions and offers advice and encouragement based on a firm foundation of biblical principles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3926 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781414304502
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Library Journal
As he has in past books (Life on the Edge, LJ 5/1/95), Dobson advises parents from his overtly conservative, Christian stance. A notable Christian activist, powerfully connected right-winger, and founder and president of Focus on the Family, he has written a work with seemingly good intentions: "If you are honest, trustworthy, caring, loving, self-disciplined, and God-fearing, your boys will be influenced by those traits as they age.... So much depends on what they observe in you." True enough. His underlying arguments, however, are peculiarly mean-spirited. Any outsider who threatens traditional family values comes under fierce attack. Most early feminists, for example, "were never married, didn't like children, and deeply resented men, yet they advised millions of women about how to raise their children and, especially, how to produce healthy boys." Dobson also avows that gays suffer from a "disorder." Clearly, the titular advice and encouragement serve Dobson's agenda. While this book is appropriate for certain religious collections, public librarians should exercise caution; there are Christian parenting titles (e.g., William Sears, M.D., & Martha Sears's The Complete Book of Christian Parenting and Child Care, Broadman & Holman, 1997) that don't polemicize and defame as does this. Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Dobson, a psychologist and family counselor, takes a decidedly conservative approach to the "special challenge of raising boys." Celebrating the natural differences between boys and girls, Dobson outlines biological differences, particular issues in disciplining boys, and the different roles of mothers and fathers. He scoffs at those who attribute differences to social factors. Dobson is particularly critical of feminists and their influence on American culture, for example, the advent of nonsexist toys. Dobson sees the "future of Western civilization" dependent on how we handle the "crisis" of raising the next generation of men. Much of his advice on boy-rearing issues, from discipline to attention deficit disorder to coping with divorce, is biblically based. Each chapter ends with a question-and-answer format. The most controversial chapter examines the origins of homosexuality, calling it a "disorder" that can be cured. Conservative and Christian readers may enjoy Dobson's book; other readers are likely to take issue with some of his observations. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization that produces his internationally syndicated radio programs, heard by more than 200 million people every day. He is seen on 80 television stations daily in the U.S. A licensed psychologist and licensed marriage, family, and child counselor, he is a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and is listed in Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare. Dr. Dobson is married to Shirley and is the father of two grown children, Danae and Ryan. He resides in Colorado.

Customer Reviews

I never thought I would enjoy a book by James Dobson
Let me start off by saying I am no conservative Christian. My husband bought this book for me as a sort of last-minute Christmas gift and he had no idea who James Dobson was. But hey, I'll read anything so I gave it a try.

I found myself agreeing with quite a few of his points, mainly about how our culture has become frantic, overscheduled, overworked, and how our children are the losers when parents become less involved in their lives and more involved in their own. He points out how kids who eat dinner with their parents on a regular basis seem to have fewer problems with the law, drugs, etc. He also talks about how popluar culture has become ever more toxic, something we must struggle to help our children cope with or protect them from it. I agree with all of these things, even though I'm considerably more on the liberal end of the spectrum.

At the core of the book (because it is about boys) is that this lack of parental involvement is harder on boys because they naturally need more supervision and guidance than girls to make good decisions. I really enjoyed reading his descriptions of how boys are more active and physical than girls because it gave me some insight into why my three year old loves running in circles roaring, then falling to the ground waving his legs in the air. The book gave me a lot of insight into how boys "work" and I think it will make me worry a lot less that my kid has something wrong with him if he finds it hard to sit still during Mass.

I skimmed over some of the chapter on homosexuality, enough to know I was going to have to agree to disagree with him on that one. However, I was surprised that his tone in that chapter was full of sympathy for the kid who thinks he's gay, although his opinion of what to do about it differs from mine. His opinions of feminism I both agreed and disagreed with. To say the early feminists only had great ideas and no loony ones is to simplify a movement that was important but also very complex, and which has had good and bad lasting changes on our society. I will probably check his notes and read some of the writings he refers to to see if he put his own spin and opinion on these quotes or if he is reporting these womens' opinions accurately. I also skipped throught the last chapter, which basically says that Christianity is the only religion that satisfactorily answers all the questions about why are we here and what are we supposed to do.

And finally, to address a couple of critiscims I read in the bad reviews. While he does believe in a stricter brand of discipline than is politically correct right now and probably has more faith in spaking than I personally do, I never got the impression that he thought you should be whacking your kids around all day, in fact much the opposite. He advocates keeping your cool, your patience, punishing when you need to but avoid constantly punishing and criticizing your child. I agree when he says we're the parents and we do need to assert our authority. And as for having a parent at home, well, I made the decision to be a stay at home mom because I saw value in having a parent at home and fighting against the hectic lifestyles that are becoming the norm in our society. So I basically agree with him on this one. But he DOES say that he knows some women need to work for financial reasons or EMOTIONAL ones, and he hopes that if you do work that you make the effort to stay connected with your kids and find stable child care for them.

So...I enjoyed the book, learned a lot about boys, and kept my anger at differing opinions in check by skipping over those parts and knowing that I wasn't going to agree lockstep with all that Mr. Dobson had to say. But overall I think it's a good insight into our sons especially for those of us moms who were calm girly girls.

Interesting and Some What Useful
As the mother of two girls and one boy, I have found, somewhat to my surprise, that raising a son really IS different! Because of that I've purchased most of the books out right now on raising boys.

I found this book by Dobson to be interesting. His chapters on the biological differences in boys and girls were very enlightening. I also thought his chapter on the importance of fathers to families was excellent - and over due in the popular media. [yep, Dads really ARE important to their children it turns out!] In addition, I share Dobson's passion for having the mother in the home raising her children, especially when her children are very young. It is THE most important job in the world, and its about time *somebody* recognized that.

His chapter on the mother's role in raising her son wasn't quite so good, seemed a bit shallow and under-developed. The entire chapter devoted to "preventing homosexuality" seemed misplaced and a bit obsessive to me. The book is sprinkled with references to homosexuality throughout and, frankly, I felt Dr. Dobson was a little over the top on the subject. He's theories on the origins of homosexuality are a little unusual as well.

The book seemed very "black and white" throughout, and was heavy with statements that "all boys do XX" or whatever. My son may not be the 'typical' boy [though he does run around hitting everything with his 'sword' and 'fighting bad guys'....], but he didn't really fit Dobson's rigid mold. I think that while boys and girls *are* different, there is still a wide range of normal variation within the definition of 'healthy manhood'.

Over all, I felt this book was worth reading and found many of his points interesting. Some of them were even helpful. But this book is not the 'end all' of boy-rearing books, and probably not the best one on the market either.

Bringing Up Boys
The book, Bringing Up Boys, by Dr. James Dobson is awesome! It is timely and filled with practical advice that parents will find extremely helpful. Dr. Dobson does a fabulous job not only in helping parents raise their sons, but he offers biblical principles that gives parents the TRUE authoritative facts about brining up boys. I learned so much about my son that I never knew. Don't waste another minute without learning the facts about boys. Buy this book today. It is a must read to for parents or guardians that are believers raising boys.