Essential advice from the author of the bestselling Get Out Of My Life
Today's children--from toddlers to preteens--challenge their parents in ways that would have been unthinkable a generation ago, notes Anthony E. Wolf, and parents are often uncertain about how to cope.
In his new book, Wolf presents a fresh perspective on this less pleasant behavior and a surprisingly simple method for dealing with it. He argues that punishments and rewards don't work and may even be counterproductive. Instead, parents must act swiftly and decisively following Wolf's easy but powerful technique. Using numerous examples of effective and ineffective parent-child interactions, he offers practical advice on a wide range of basic issues, from tantrums and back talk, to getting kids off to school in the morning and eliminating sibling fights.
Humorous and easy to use, The Secret of Parenting is guaranteed to dramatically increase the joy parents get from raising their children.
One of the best parenting books I wish I had found this book when my son was a toddler. It made a lot of difference in my approach to parenting and gave me understanding on what was going on with my son. It takes a lot of work and effort to stop old parenting styles, including punishments, threats and manipulating with rewards; at the end it really pays off. It has been 5 years since I found this book and we follow its advice, it made a lot of difference, my son used to go to his room slam the door and shut down; he would be upset and crying. He has not done that since we started a different parenting approach, including dialog and setting up expectations. My son is 12 now and he is a great kid. I am thankful for the author who has shared his wisdom about parenting. I also recommend: "Raising Cooperative & Self-Confident Children" by Ph.D. Francine C. Beauvoir and "Parent Effectiveness Training, P.E.T." By Dr. Thomas Gordon.
Potentially life changing! This is one of the few parenting books I have felt compelled to read cover to cover. First, Wolf's advice is very practically oriented, and the first time I tried his suggestion to "disengage" I experienced the effectiveness of the approach. Just as important, he outlines the "big picture" of what this sort of parenting aims to achieve: happy, self-confident children who do the right thing by developing a real moral compass, not just behaving out of fear of punishment. Best of all, as other reviewers have suggested, he helps put the joy back in parenting by placing your own child's behavior in its proper perspective, and by emphasizing the positive power all parents have over their children. I can already see the improvement in my son's behavior, and in my mood!
Finally, I Get It! This book was wonderful for me. It helped me understand why my children's behavior is so different around me, than it is around everyone else. It's very easy to read and humorous, but also gives sound practical advice.
AWESOME BOOK This book is awesome - really works well with our kids. Time outs, threats and punishments did NOT work. Every hospital should give this book to parents when they leave for home with their newborn child!
NOT what I was hoping for. As a mother of four, I can say that I have lived many parenting dillemas, and read many many parenting books. Unfortunately, this one wasn't helpfull at all. If a child is kicking furniture and refusing to obey his father, the best recommandation this author has to offer is to wait, and eventually the child will stop and go do something else. As if I couldn't have guessed that myself. Of course he will eventually stop, does ignoring the kicking and defiand behavior makes you a good parent? I wish! The day I ordered that book, I also ordered New Parent Power from Rosemond, and THAT is a good book, a real bible for parenting. He doesn't suggest that you let your kids do just anything and hope that one day they stop any bad behavior just by magic, he details real consequences for bad behaviors, and THAT is helpfull. Any parent can ignore a child banging on the table at supper time, it won't make supper time any better, it will only show the other kids that they can do whatever they want because the parents will ignore, won't care enough to lift a finger, and supper time will become a jungle. This is not what I want in my house! My kids are (generally) well behaved, because they know that when they mis-behave, they suffer consequences. Time outs, priviledges taken away, and such. Hope this helps your choice! (he is closer to Dr Sears "attachment parenting" than to Rosemond "real good traditionnal parenting", and having seen many families, and having many kids, I am now feeling really strongly that past age 12 or 18 months, attachment parenting just makes kids become brats, as real traditionnal parenting makes respectfull kids, well behaved and self assured kids, that can sleep in their bed, and get around without being in moms arms.) Sorry for the mistakes I have made, English is my second language. Have a nice day!
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
