Benjamin Spock led the way among child rearing professionals in instructing parents not to discipline their children. He said that doing so would damage children’s ego. Later in his life he realized that he had made a mistake and said:
“We have reared a generation of brats. Parents aren’t firm enough with their children for fear of losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it with the best of intentions. We didn’t realize until it was too late how our know-it-all attitude was undermining the self assurance of parents.”