Parenting Without Power Struggles: Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids While Staying Cool, Calm And Connected (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
A good starter book for those with particularly willful kids. I view this type of book as putting more tools in my parenting "kit" so to speak, and will try some of its various strategies to see if they work for us.The book deals with parents' reactions (or not) to their kids' behaviors, and does a good job of describing a variety of ways of connecting with our kids, taking into account their varied and diverse personalities, forms of intelligence, and fears/anxieties. I actually read this book quite a while ago, so my review is based only on memory.Some of the ideas in this book I've heard before, but the new ones all seemed very useful. The author emphasizes helping children learn to recognize and manage their emotions, not on "discipline" and punishment, but make no mistake - this is not "soft" or permissive parenting by any stretch of the imagination. You will see the most impact from her methods in children who are more strong-willed or in chaotic environments (she is a therapist, after all!) but even if your child is definitely thriving, the skills and methods she teaches will reduce your stress level, help you bond with your kid, and help you teach your child the emotional skills they need to have healthy relationships with others throughout their lives.The techniques in this book are mostly applicable to older (verbal) children, though some of them can be applied to toddlers and young pre-school age children. And, in fact, I do try now to verbalize my son's emotions for him as much as I can (he's 22 months old) so that he can begin to learn the vocabulary for emotions and awareness. The difficulty will be if, as for me, this approach runs counter to the culture you were raised in emphasizing consequences and punishment (or, praise and approval). So even if your children are younger, I recommend reading it now so you can mentally rehearse the techniques even before your children are of an age the techniques would be more applicable to. (I'd originally checked this out from the library, but I've since purchased it on the Kindle so my husband can read it and we can discuss it, and so I can re-read it periodically.)
What do You think about Parenting Without Power Struggles: Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids While Staying Cool, Calm And Connected (2009)?
Great advice but will be challenging to implement. From the little we have tried it seems to work!
—Michelle23
This book is Amazing! Especially for anyone with head strong child. Fabulous.
—dudeimkyleigh
For a parenting book, this one could actually be helpful to parents.
—kirstyij
A very centering book. Enjoyable to read and reflect on slowly.
—Cas
