tough love

Wiktionary, the free dictionary. For other uses, see Tough love (disambiguation).

Tough love is an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run.

In most uses, there must be some actual love or feeling of affection behind the harsh or stern treatment to be defined as tough love. For example, genuinely concerned parents refusing to support their drug-addicted child financially until he or she enters drug rehabilitation would be said to be practicing tough love.[1][2] A coach who trains his players hard and is strict, but likes his players could also be said to be practicing tough love.

"Tough love" boot camps for teenagers have been described as 'child abuse', and the NIH noted that "get tough treatments do not work and there is some evidence that they may make the problem worse".[3]

See also Enabling Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids

References ^ Vine, Sarah:Tough love or TLC? The Times August 31 2007 ^ Jardine, Cassandra: The ultimate betrayal or just tough love? Daily Telegraph, 4 March 2009 ^ The Trouble With Tough Love (Washington Post, Maia Szalavitz)

External links Teen dies in tough love program (Newsweek, July 2001) Teen starves to death as result of tough love ("Loving them to death", Outside Magazine, October 1995) Abuse in a tough love school in Costa Rica ("Tough love school sent to timeout", Inside Costa Rica, June 2003) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_love" Categories: Love | English phrases | Behavior modification