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Modern parenting techniques are leading to a generation of "little emperors", according to controversial UK psychologist and author Dr Aric Sigman.
Sigman told TV ONE's Breakfast programme parents need to stop trying to be their child's friend and set firm boundaries.
"What's happened is that people didn't want to be like parents in the 1950s. So they started becoming best friends with their children."
He said that was a conflict of interest, and being your child's best friend was, in many ways, also being their worst enemy.
"Most studies are finding very clearly over a period of 25 or even 50 years, children who are brought up with boundaries, with parents saying 'no' and who are reasonaby strict, end up happier, healthier and more successful."
He said modern parents were forgetting the importance of boundaries.
"The new generation needs to be reminded that things like boundaries, saying 'no' and meaning it, are constant principles which are never going to change.
"A child's job is to press for boundaries and our job is to give the location of the boundaries."
He said setting boundaries would lead to happier children and said studies had shown children's "wellness" had gone down as they had been given more rights.
He also believed a lack of boundaries and discipline led to less-considerate children.
"Children also who don't have a sense of empathy, they're not as considerate for other people, not just in terms of overt selfishness, but when you're walking down the pavement they don't acknowledge the fact that you're there, things like that."
Sigman said he was also concerned about the amount of time this generation of children spends on computers.
"The main worry that I have is over the number of hours that very young children are spending looking at a screen and not looking at their parents' reactions to their behaviour.
"It is preventing them from developing social skills and empathy so they can deal with other people and be socially viable and civilised."
Sigman's new book Spoilt Generation is out now.
What do you think of Dr Sigman's comments? Have your say on the messageboard below:
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Post new commentphilipmcc said on 2010-08-02 @ 22:12 NZDT: Report abusive post
This is hardly a controversial position. Most of us in the human relations field have known what he is suggesting for a long time. The phrase "permissive parenting" was coined many years ago. I've worked with many parents who have set out to be 'friends' with their children, often as a reaction to the 'distance' of their own parents. As a result their children have not had clear boundaries, which enable them to make sense of the world. Without them they feel very insecure.