Ownership Parenting vs. Ambassador Parenting

Paul Tripp argues in Parenting that a common cause of dysfunction in families is that parents (often unconsciously) adopt a view he calls the “ownership view” of parenting. In effect, it is acting as if, “These children belong to me, so I can parent them in the way I see fit.” On this view, parenting is governed by what we want for our children and from them. As he says,

It seems right, it feels right, and it does many good things, but it is foundationally misguided and misdirected and will not produce what God intends in the lives that he has entrusted to our…