John Rosemond is an American columnist, public speaker, and author on parenting. His weekly parenting column is syndicated in approximately 225 newspapers, and he has authored 15 books on the subject. His ideas revolve around the ideas of authority for the parents and discipline for children. He believes the parenting changes of the 1960s were problematic. Rosemond grew up in Charleston, SC, and the suburbs of Chicago. He attended Western Illinois University, graduating in 1971 with a master's degree in Community Psychology. At Western Illinois University, Rosemond sang lead in a popular campus band, Herkemer Bog, where he met his future wife at a concert. From 1971 to 1980, Rosemond worked as a therapist and program director at various mental health centers in Illinois, Iowa, and North Carolina. He began writing his newspaper column in 1976, while Director of the Early Intervention Program at the Gaston-Lincoln Mental Health Center in Gastonia, NC. In 1978, the Charlotte Observer purchased the column and put it into syndication a year later. It now appears weekly in over 200 newspapers in the USA. From 1980 to 1990, Rosemond was in private practice as a family therapist. Rosemond is married and has two children, Eric and Amy. He is licensed as a psychological associate in the state of North Carolina.
Books
Rosemond has authored or co-authored fifteen books, including: Books as sole author:
Rosemond has received criticism for his recommendations on toilet training and spanking because they contradict other parenting experts' recommendations as well as the official evidence-based policy of the American Psychological Association. Rosemond's statements on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder also have been criticized for being inaccurate; Rosemond says the disorder does not exist. In 1992, Rosemond wrote a column in which he stated that an 18-month-old girl who had been sexually abused on one occasion by a non-family member was unlikely to ever remember the event; therefore, therapy was not called for. Rosemond's advice was in line with research into human memory which finds that regardless of the nature of an event, permanent memory does not form until around age 36 months, on average. However, it directly contradicts years of research indicating that preverbal trauma has lifelong psychological and neurodevelopmental effects, especially if untreated. In 2013, the Kentucky Psychology Board initiated a letter to Rosemond from the Attorney General of Kentucky, charging Rosemond with practicing psychology in Kentucky without a license issued by them. The charge was based solely on the fact that Rosemond's syndicated column appears in five Kentucky newspapers. Rosemond sued the Kentucky Psychology Board and Attorney General in federal court, charging them with attempting to suppress his First Amendment rights. He subsequently released the Attorney General from the suit. The Psychology Board refused to back down and the case went to court. Rosemond won in October 2015.
