Video: Balanced Parenting: Love and Limits

What happens when you push away your child with your left hand and pull him close with the right hand? He turns around. Dr. David Pelcovitz, Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University, interweaves his talk at JLI’s National Jewish Retreat with stories that bring his points firmly home.

Today’s parents are right hand specialists, creating spoiled children, unprepared for life. No is essential for growth: limits need to be put on calmly; rational consequences should be related to action; and not for too long.

Love is connected to the amount of time spent together. Lower levels of substance abuse are found in children whose families eat together 5 times a week. Picking up a cell phone call during that family dinner says the person on the other end is more important than my child.