Book Review: Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson

James Dobson, Ph.D., is the founder of Focus on the Family and a popular author of several bestselling parenting books. This book, which complements his successful Bringing Up Boys, examines the role of mothers and fathers in raising their daughters. It also looks at societal influences on girls and suggests steps parents can take to reduce the negative impact of those influences.

Dr. James Dobson's follow-up to Bringing Up Boys offers an insightful portrait into the pressures that today's families face while raising their girls. In Bringing Up Girls, he takes a close look at the emotional needs of girls - and the roles that mothers and fathers play in creating successful, happy women.

The book opens with a discussion about the gender differences between girls and boys. From there it moves on to a discussion of the impact parents - and particularly fathers - have on their developing daughters. Dr. Dobson strongly stresses that fathers need to be actively involved in their daughters' lives from the time they are toddlers through the awkward adolescent ages and into young adulthood in order for their little girls to build a positive self-esteem. This is a viewpoint my husband and I share, and one I feel tends to get lost in the plethora of parenting messages that are delivered from today's media.

Bringing Up Girls also paints a scary picture of the negative impact that society's depiction of women has on the emotional development of girls, particularly noting that today's movie and television stars are terrible role models for women. Throughout the book, suggestions are given to parents on how to protect their daughters from the worst of outside influences or to handle sticky situations, like bullying. Dr. Dobson also focuses on his Christian faith and the importance the role of religion has in raising children.

I strongly agree with Dr. Dobson that many of today's television shows and teenage stars serve as terrible role models for our growing daughters and also believe that religious and moral education provides a much-needed counter to that societal influence. However, I do find his message that women must stay at home with their children to do a good job raising them a bit antiquated given the myriad flexible working arrangements available for women (and men).

Dr. Dobson's Bringing Up Girls offers some thought-provoking comments on how today's societal influences affect girls' development and, in addition, provides helpful, positive suggestions to parents searching for ways to raise emotionally healthy and happy daughters despite modern society's negative messages. While I didn't always agree with some of his arguments, I found the overall book worth reading for its ability to make me think about outside pressures on my daughters and how I - and my husband - will help them handle those pressures as they mature.