Monday, July 19, 2010

Review: Positive Discipline

I can assure you -- Jane Nelsen is the Real Deal
By Jane Nelsen
Positive DisciplineIn my practice as a clinical psychologist, I’ve been recommending Jane Nelsen’s book for 20 years now and I can assure you – she’s the real deal.

Nelsen teaches parents how to use good discipline that teaches kids and helps them grow – it’s not just punishment. She espouses discipline that teaches. Using her techniques, the child is constantly learning and growing. Her key to discipline is that it is based on mutual respect – not punishment.

By creating mutual respect, your kids want to hear your opinion and advice. They are curious about it. Nelsen also focuses on how to let kids have control over some of their decisions and letting them experience consequences.

Positive Discipline is the main book that outlines the key principle. Other books in the series, such as Positive Discipline for Teen Agers and Positive Discipline for Toddlers, are extremely on point about the practical day-to-day dealings that you have with the child at the age that each particular book focuses on.

Her books keep getting updated and republished because they are practical and very loving. I just can’t recommend Jane Nelsen highly enough … and the whole series.  Click here or on Book Cover to order Positive Discipline

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Review: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

This is a book that really helps people to change the way they approach their kids.
By Elaine Mazlish
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will TalkThis book is a classic, a real gem. I first discovered Elaine Mazlish when my sons were three and four. My mother-in-law, who raised five sons herself, used to watch my kids once a week when they were small. We both read it and loved it. And then we would both re-read it whenever we started drifting off course and going back to our old bad habits.

I gave my sister a copy. She posted the reminder cartoons (great cartoons, by the way) and chapter summaries on her bathroom mirror. Her friends kept taking the copies so she had to keep re-copying the summaries!

Twenty years later, I still give the book away regularly to my clients. It’s a book that really helps people to change the way they approach their kids. I have used it with people who were child abuse survivors and as a result have had no parenting models. They all love it, too because it really helps them change.

Twenty years later, the one thing most people say about my two sons—who are very different in almost every way—is how polite and respectful they are to people. My mother-in-law and I attribute it to this book.

Early on, I discovered that Elaine Mazlish's book works on husbands, too! My husband is a better listener as a result of the techniques that I learned from this book. With enduring value and no updates needed, this book is a classic. It is part of a series, by the way, and each book in the series is just as wonderful as this one!