Fathers: Rule the Family Well

Modern books on family life today speak frankly about the many problems in the home—for example, how out of control most teenagers are. Some even link the problem directly to laxness in modern child rearing.

It’s the “era of permissiveness,” Anthony E. Wolf wrote in Get Out Of My Life. “The new teenager does feel freer to do as he or she pleases, especially at home …. Old-style respect is gone. We have entered a new era in child rearing.”

But instead of advocating returning to those old methods that once worked, today’s so-called “authorities” only look for answers in new, progressive forms of parenting.

But do these strategies work? Are they easing teen problems? Are they stabilizing out-of-balance lives? Are they producing peaceful, character-driven adults? For the answers, just look at the world today. The only “good” that comes from these progressive experiments—if we’re being honest—is that they demonstrate beyond doubt just how mixed up things get when our understanding of and respect for authority is ambiguous.

The main goal of any father should be to rule the family well—which includes bringing children into subjection. In today’s program, we will examine this crucial responsibility of the father.