Parenting challenges and rewards
Parents of young children
The experts are split on this. Both sides are here.
Parenting is the most challenging, difficult, and rewarding activity in life with major highs and lows, and parents should appreciate the short time they...
Who is behind it
Voices including a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus of psychology and a media host and psychologist with a lapsed clinical license.
How strong the research is
Mostly expert experience so far, with published research still catching up.
In their words
“Parenting is the most challenging, difficult, and rewarding activity in life with major highs and lows, and parents should appreciate the short time they have with young children.”
a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus of psychology
Effective discipline requires consistent rules applied with minimal force and plenty of patience, and parents should discuss and agree on disciplinary strategies together.
Stealing and lying in children often reflect family dynamics and low self-esteem, so family counseling is recommended to address underlying issues.
Parents should actively engage with their teenagers to prevent them from drifting into negative peer groups and to address issues like bullying early before they escalate.
Where they disagree
Both sides
For
Effective discipline requires consistent rules applied with minimal force and plenty of patience, and parents should discuss and agree on disciplinary strategies together.
a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus of psychologyAgainst
Spoiling children by doing too many things for them removes their opportunity to develop competence and abdicates their own thinking, leading others to think for them.
a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus of psychologyCredible minds land on different sides here. Read both, notice how it suits you, and talk it through with your clinician.
More on the other side
Children learn to lie from their parents, often by age three, so parents must model truthfulness to foster honesty in children. a media host and psychologist with a lapsed clinical license
Spoiling a child by doing too many things for them takes away their opportunity to develop competence and leads to abdication of thought where others think for them. a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus of psychology
Spoiling a child by doing too many things for them takes away their opportunity to develop their own competence. a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus of psychology
Talk it through
Entrain shows what the experts teach, so you can make better decisions with your own clinician. It does not diagnose or prescribe. If something is worrying you, start there.
How this reading was made
Every line here comes from a doctor, scientist or coach speaking publicly, and links to the moment they said it. Entrain listens for where independent experts arrive at the same place on their own, and shows where they part ways. Mostly expert experience so far, with published research still catching up.
None of the statements here come with a declared commercial interest. Last refreshed 19 August 2026.
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