Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children Book

One might wonder why a mother of three would pick up this book. I wondered that myself at first. But with my older two kids just a couple short years from hitting their tween phase, and with my littlest one being a spunky, hot-tempered little thing who's quite different from how her older siblings were when they were babies, I thought it would be good to read this book for various reasons: 1) to see how my parenting measures up to the principles in this book; and 2) to see if I could do something different or better.

As it turns out, much of how I had already felt about parenting is echoed in this book, but my style of parenting could be pushed further by the main, overall principle, which is to above all, respect your child and to teach him/her what that respect means. The principles reiterate a language of understanding and empathy: be a good listener, be a good storyteller, hug lots, and be encouraging. Not only is this good for the parent, but if done properly and effectively, the child will mirror these actions and learn the importance of this principle in terms of everyday life and interactions.

You can read my comments to see what I gathered from the book. Keep in mind that I only talk about what I found particularly useful, which doesn't mean that I didn't find everything that I didn't write about not useful. Rather, I have already been doing some of the principles and didn't want to repeat them, or I didn't really like the rules. The comments are more for me to look at and be reminded of what things I can try out.

I did tell my two older kids about this book and what I found useful. They are very receptive to this discussion, and I'm excited to see how it all goes down, especially when my husband takes a look at my review and comments, and we discuss this as a family.

I recommend this book to anyone really--not just parents--who want to examine human interaction from a different lens.