Examines CC Lewis's (see record 1982-03449-001) evidence that firm control measures the child's willingness to obey more than the parent's exercise of control and that firm control is not an essential ingredient of the authoritative package in producing competent behavior. The present author agrees that the application of functionally superfluous control under certain conditions undermines internalization of parental values, but she questions whether the prime objective of socialization should be the internalization of the norms of the parents' generation and of dispositional compliance.(30 ref)(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)