Today’s ‘Ask Amy’ column by Amy Dickinson ‘father is re-creating cycle of bad parenting’ does not mention parenting education. Please!

When are we as a society going to realize that parents’ concerns are * not * signs of mental illness? I wrote a short note to AskAmy @ tribune . com and urge you to do the same. Amy’s closes her column to the Anxious Wife: ‘Please see a therapist together’ when she could and should have written ‘Please seek parenting education and support -and- urge your husband to see a therapist.’

Pediatricians need to hear this message too. The August 1, 2012 issue of Pediatrics has an article by Hibbard et al. on psychological and emotional maltreatement of children, saying that ‘it may be the most challenging and prevalent form of child abuse and neglect’. But the article makes no mention of parenting education and support beyond that which already over-burdened medical professionals may, or may not, be able to give. Doctors and nurses are not trained to provide parenting education, after all.

We have got to make a change here.