Dr. Phil has seen his fair share of troubled kids on his show. Thankfully, he has narrowed a few rules down to two that all parents could follow to raise good children:
- Do not burden them with situations they cannot control.
- Do not ask them to deal with adult issues.
These 2 things tend to make a child feel helpless.
For parents who argue and fight around kids, Dr. Phil suggests these arguments can, in fact, affect a child’s behavior.
“One of the things I hear people say, I hear them say it all the time on this stage. They say, ‘You know what, the kids don’t really know what’s going on,’” he explains. “Really? You really think kids don’t know what’s going between you and your spouse? Trust me, they do. They know what’s going on. They hear what’s said. They hear what isn’t said.”
Believe it or not, even the best-behaved kids can be difficult and challenging. If your child has a persistent pattern of anger, irritability, arguing, defiance or vindictiveness toward you and other authority figures, there's a chance he or she may have oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and could require therapy.
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