Jesper Juul argues that today's families are at an exciting crossroad. The authoritarian parenting style based on obedience, conformity, and physical and emotional violence that governed traditional hierarchical families is being transformed.

In this international best-selling book Jesper Juul talks about embracing a new set of values, based on the assumption that families must be built not on authoritarian force or democratic tyranny but on dignity and reciprocity between parent and child. Children are competent to express their feelings from birth, and they are eager to co-operate as well as assume responsibility for their personal and social behavior.

As parents we must work on listening to and learning from our children. When our children’s behavior makes us feel less than valuable, then it is often because we are.