Loving Our Kids On Purpose: Making A Heart-To-Heart Connection (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
He openly acknowledges that he uses many of the techniques from Love and Logic, so some things seem redundant/borrowed, if you are at all familiar with L&L, but the insights and presentation are still very good. I find myself frustrated at my own lack of creativity when I read books like this, and wonder if I can really parent this way, but I wish I could. I could read this again three or four times and keep underlining new things. I started it several months ago, but (preferring to read fiction!) just read the second half tonight. What to say about this book...First off, the author comes from a much different Christian background than I do, I background that I found a little scary. At one point he talks about hiding wooden spoons in every room of his house, in his car, and even in his friends' homes just in case his child misbehaved. Wooden spoons with which to beat his child. He mentions this casually, as if this is normal in Christian households. I DO NOT THINK THIS IS NORMAL. And if it is, it is in no way the kind of Christianity I want to be associated with. (And since I'm Mormon, I guess technically I'm not. Woo!)So this wooden spoon thing took place early in the author's parenting career. Since then, he has realized that there's this whole other part of the bible called "the New Testament" where Jesus talks about loving others and whatnot. Apparently this is news to his Christian readership because he talks about it a LOT and explains it in excruciating detail, even though "Love one another" is sort of the most basic part of following Jesus. Maybe difficult to put into practice, but easy to understand.On a purely literary note, I did not enjoy the writing. Most passages were either repetitive and simplistic or so incomprehensible as to be meaningless. It was such a chore to read this. On a positively negative note, some of his analogies were wonderful examples of terrible writing. A metaphor should break down at some point, but that point should not be right at the beginning.In conclusion, the author had some useful things to say about parenting, all of which could have been covered in a pamphlet using bullet points, which would have saved me considerable time.
What do You think about Loving Our Kids On Purpose: Making A Heart-To-Heart Connection (2008)?
Some great stuff on the "Love and Logic" spectrum.
—vee
one of the best parenting books I've read
—ellie24
