Dobson’s parenting advice directly repudiated Spock’s permissive model and reasserted paternal authority

Evidence

Dobson decided to write the book after seeing too many troubled children of the 1960s come through the doors of his clinic. Believing that their problems could be traced to the breakdown of the social order—the sexual revolution, divorce, and the disintegration of the family—Dobson began dispensing old-fashioned parenting advice based on “Judeo-Christian values” to church and PTA groups, advice he then published in his book. Repudiating the permissive approach to child-rearing championed by the recently retired and widely celebrated Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dobson encouraged parents to reassert authority over unruly children. Spanking was a good way to accomplish this, and Dobson offered detailed instructions. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 183

Categorization

• XREF: Repudiating a once-celebrated authority figure to build one’s own — parallels the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article’s pattern of new moral entrepreneurs displacing older authorities.