Drawing the Line: Ten Steps to Constructive Discipline--And Achieving a Great Relationship with Your Kids »

In the bestselling tradition of "1-2-3 Magic" comes a unique and controversial approach that tells parents in order to eliminate conflict with their child, they must first create it. The authors introduce a ten-step program that shows parents how to create and engineer conflict to help their children break inappropriate habits and learn more productive ways of behaving.

Library Journal

These books deal with a common child-rearing issue: bad behavior. In The Brat Stops Here, Jacobsen (chief psychologist, Amherst Wilder Fdn.) shares her direct, no-excuses approach to solving behavioral issues among six- to 12-year-olds. Misbehavior, she believes, arises from "a mix of the child's difficult temperament and misguided parenting methods." To fix it, parents need a personalized plan steeped in professional research. Jacobsen serves up just that with real-world examples and step-by-step instructions. In Drawing the Line, child psychologists Weiss and Wagner take a similar approach to Jacobsen's in targeting specific behaviors. Yet they go into a lot more detail on how to go about making changes, endorsing, for instance, a rather controversial method that encourages parents to engineer conflict with their children at a specific time and place. Both books discuss different parenting styles and which is most effective; both discuss rewards, ignoring, and penalties as well as consider the most effective form of penalty, the time out. There is a simplicity to Jacobsen's approach, which almost seems too good to be true. However, it empowers a parent at least to give it a try. Weiss and Wagner, on the other hand, seem to have the answers to just about any problem, but readers must take the time to sit down and internalize their suggestions. Public libraries can safely purchase either book.-Kari Ramstrom, MLIS, Plymouth, MN Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.