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
This 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!