John Rosemond's Headshot

John Rosemond

- Panelist Blurb

John Rosemond (born November 25, 1947) has authored 14 parenting books, pamphlets and writes a nationally syndicated column on parenting.

Rosemond grew up in Charleston, SC, and the suburbs of Chicago. He attended Western Illinois University, graduating in 1971 with a Masters Degree in Community Psychology. From 1971 to 1980, Rosemond worked as a psychologist 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, where he and his wife had moved that same year with their two children, Eric and Amy. 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, John was in private practice as a family psychologist.

John's first book, John Rosemond's Six-Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children, was published by Andrews McMeel in 1989. It received a lot of attention, both positive and negative, because of his advocacy of a non-psychological philosophy and traditional parenting methods. That book is now available in a greatly expanded edition titled John Rosemond's NEW Six-Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children. Rosemond has since authored fourteen books on parenting and family issues, including A Family of Value, Making the Terrible Twos Terrific!, and Teen-Proofing.

In 2007, Rosemond published (through Howard Books) his first book with an explicitly Christian theme, Parenting by The Book. He has since written two books, the latest (as of Sept. 2009) being The Well-Behaved Child: Discipline that REALLY Works! (Thomas Nelson Publishers), and is currently working on three other books.

In addition to speaking and writing, Rosemond serves on the board of directors for ParentalRights.org, a grassroots organization dedicated to adding a Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Rosemond is known for his old-fashioned, Bible-based parenting philosophy and approach. That, in combination with his outspoken political conservatism, has earned him a number of critics, especially within the mental health professions. Rosemond, a psychologist, generally begins his presentations by telling his audiences that "psychology is a secular religion that one believes in by faith" and that psychology has done more harm than good to the American family.

NOTE: Bio updated on June 14, 2011.