Parents must exercise extreme caution and maintain strict, proactive boundaries because smartphones are inherently designed to be addictive and harmful to children.

“This is perhaps the most you know toxic invention that we have given our children which is this use of technology at such a young age because it robs them of their capacity to like you said to knit to dream to read and creates such social havoc.”

Children's behavior is primarily a result of their parenting, which creates individuals who eventually hold positions of power in adulthood.

“Yeah. Yeah, that's See, that's what I'm saying. It's poor parenting all the time. That's what I was about to say. It's poor It's It's poor parenting everywhere. And and that creates individuals that grow up to be grown-up individuals. And some of those individuals end up getting positions of power.”

He advocates for empowering parents with tools that allow them to monitor and regulate their children's gaming activity.

“putting some tools into those parents hands so that they can parent but remotely but remotely while that situation kind of sucks i think is maybe a good idea it's better than nothing”

Parents are responsible for the actions of their children.

“And secondly, they they should be armed. These people should have gun rights in California. And um and bad parenting, I think, is leading. So, I blame the parents.”

Parents must pay closer attention to their children's activities because online grooming and digital radicalization are major threats.

“These kids these parents these parents need to be paying attention to their what their kids are doing because a lot of these kids are groomed on these online you know, so rooms going on and all this AI stuff and all this kind of stuff.”

Parents should focus on building up the good in their children rather than dwelling on negative behavior.

“You always focus on the good kid, not the bad behavior. You deal with bad behavior, but your your focus is always on the good kid. Where you put your energy, where you put your focus is what grows.”

Parents should move away from punitive discipline toward a model of relational discipline that focuses on teaching skills through collaboration.

“we can respond with relational discipline so Dr ablon I'm totally bought in give me the step by step let's go what do we do uh you know here's a simple way to think about things and I always say to people don't confuse simple with easy”

Parents should show love to their children fiercely but not uncritically and provide honest feedback when they make mistakes.

“so to me it means loving fiercely but not uncritically and you know when you mess up the people who love you supposed to tell you straight up you know that your stuff is not together”

Discipline is ineffective when it is not balanced by compassion.

“Discipline without compassion is cruelty.”

Parents must present a unified front in their discipline to provide children with security and to avoid being manipulated.

“you want to make an in you want to make a unit you want to be you want to have each other's backs with regards to your disciplinary decisions because the children need to see you as a unified front and they'll test and push to see if they can push between you”

The authoritative parenting style is effective because it balances sensitivity with consistent boundaries and limits.

“so that's the middle path of like authoritative where you're sensitive, but you stick with your limits and boundaries because you know that that's going to benefit your kids”

Dr. Phil insists that parents always have choices and must make their child their top priority over other competing interests.

“There's always a choice and there's always a priority. I hear parents say all the time, well, what are we supposed to do? Well, you're supposed to do whatever it takes to raise the child.”

Parents need to set firm expectations that children should pursue higher education from a young age.

“It's so important for parents like Cheryl and all of us to set those expectations to let children know from a very young age you're going to college.”