My 8-year-old says he wants to drown himself. What do I do?

Question: I have an 8-year-old with behavioral issues. Several times he has said he wants to drown himself. What do I do? Answer: Assuming that the statements are not hyperbole, such as indicating embarrassment by saying “I wish I were dead,” then you have a problem on your hand that cannot be ignored. It is…

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How can I make my daughter interested in studying?

Question: My daughter is 12 years old and in the seventh standard at an Indian convent. She does not have any interest in studying. Please let me know what I can do to make her study. Answer: In order for education to take place, there needs to be a teacher willing to teach, a student…

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I Saw a Child

by Leo Rogol (1969) What I saw was not what one reads about children in storybooks and poems:  It was not the beauty of childish innocence; the simple trusting faith in something big, wide, and wonderful; a child roaming the fields with his beloved dog, searching out the marvelous mysteries and wonders of nature. Though…

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How can I get my 8-year-old son to stop wetting his pants?

Question: We have a strong-willed eight-year-old son that occasionally wets his pants (once every two to three months when he’s too busy playing and the like). Recently, after a wetting episode, I decided to discipline him by diapering him. My wife felt it was not appropriate, and that I should just increase the severity of…

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Should a child’s pants be taken down for a spanking?

Question: I want to ask, please, if it’s good to take down the pants of a seven-year-old child for a spanking. Answer: When disciplining a child, spanking is not the only option available to a parent. Often, when parenting is done well, spankings will only be needed infrequently. Raising a child well also involves teaching…

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How will male virtues be passed on without spanking?

Question: I am a Swedish man living in Denmark, not a Christian or religious at all, but I am brought up in a tradition where spanking and what my father called “male virtues” was normal. This was in the ’60s and beginning of the ’70s. I do agree that for boys it is a necessary…

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