Reviews for Parenting Ideas From Childhood into Adolescence

The average rating for Parenting Ideas From Childhood into Adolescence based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-09-16 00:00:00 Tyler Ross I had thought a lot about what parenting was going to mean for me and how I was going to go about it. I read a lot of different books covering all areas in great detail and discussedit with my partner. When my son arrived the experienced surpassed the greatest of expectations. Being the mother to a baby was just wonderful. BUT THEN one day, our baby was a boy who wanted to PLAY. He really showed that he needed me to get down on the floor and PLAY with him and his toys. I was totally unprepared for this. I could do it for a bit, but then after a while I was exasperated and he was restless. After some time of games like putting all the farm animals in the correct part of the plastic barn and pretend feeding them and putting them to sleep, it was just SO BORING and I couldn't think of what to do next. I felt terribly guilty about checking my watch throughout and then I felt like I was the most boring and unimaginative person ever. I felt there was obviously some wonderful world of fantasy and fun he was in which I as an adult had lost. For the first time I felt disconnected from him. After a few pages of this book, I got down on the floor with my son and played with gusto. I loved it and I could tell that my son was enjoying it. He is only a year and a half . His eyes lit up and at the end of one game that same afternoon he really just looked at me into my eyes with some new curiosity and he stopped repeatedly and intermittently to give me huge hugs in a way which he had never done before.They were not the regular cuddly hugs, but more like "this is new, we're having fun together aren't we?" hugs. We'd started a new way of being together. The book affected not only the way we play together but it introduced for me a whole new way of being a parent which has made it even more rewarding for me. I felt that I had (as much as I could !) really got to grips with what I wanted to do in terms of the attachment parenting issues, "disciplining", communication, connecting and all the practical parts of parenting, but here was the fun and the drive to infuse ALL of those areas. Each page is packed with intelligent thought-provoking ideas and sometimes very serious issues, all of which are embedded in such simple and funny anecdotes from his own practice that there is never a dry or "heavy" moment. There are suggestions HOW to play, how to enjoy it as a parent and how to make the most of it for your child as well as your connection with your child. I also knew that playing was also really important for the development of a child, but I'd just taken this as a given and never spent much thought on what it actually meant. Cohen's ideas about why it is developmentally important opened my eyes. It makes one really think about how to play and Cohen has so many smart ideas about how to use play to contribute as a parent to that development. I know that there are those who really believe that children should "learn" as soon as possible to play by themselves and you might get the impression you have to spend time, which you do not have, playing for ever. But this book is about making the whole of parenting fun and rewarding for everyone. PLUS, our boy DOES now play by himself (as well as with me) and he is fantastic at initiating games with other children. After all as a parent, you can only be that much fun at the end of the day...He plays loud intense and funny games with his toys by himself and sometimes I have to stop myself from bothering him and joining in. Groundbreaking.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-06-12 00:00:00 Janet Bacom I had a love/hate relationship with this book. I feel like it motivated me to play with my children more. It also made me rethink the value of play and what certain types of play mean. Due to this book, I played a game where my young son took away my shoes and I cried and cried about how I wanted them back. My son loved the game and due to reading this book, I could see where this would be fun for him when in real life, I'm the one taking things away from him. So there were nuggets that were gleaned from this reading experience. That being said, this book was long and super repetitive. I was aggravated by the poor organization that allowed such repetitiveness. It wasn't very "user" friendly either. I waited a long time for answers to simple questions. For example, I wanted to know how often I should play with my children. It took the author forever to get around to answering this question and it was never answered to my satisfaction. The author spent a lot of reading time relating stories and metaphors without clearly stating what playful parenting is and how it's done. The second thing that bothered me the most, was the author himself. His writing came off as condescending and judgmental towards us poor parents who just don't know what to do. Some of his real life stories bugged me as well. For instance, he relates one story of a mother who he considered was being overprotective of her child and therefore, inhibiting her child. Rather than create an awkward situation by pointing this out to her, he made a game of it. The game was to exaggerate her behaviors to help her see how ridiculous she was being. He seemed very proud that he corrected her without embarrassing her. I, personally, found his approach more rude and humiliating than if he would have just told her she was being overprotective. Although both are bad things to do in my opinion. What gave him the right to judge her and her parenting? If she was asking for his help, that's one thing, but she wasn't. It wasn't his place to correct her. There was another section where the author talks about parents helping and supporting one another. He suggests instead of ignoring a fellow parent and child where the child is throwing a tantrum, to walk up the the parent and say, "Wow. Looks like you've had a long day." Um, that's supposed to be helpful and supportive? I'm sure in the middle of my child's tantrum, I would love for a stranger to come up to me and guess how my day was going based on the ten seconds they've observed me. So helpful. Of course, he also gave the suggestion to stand by, offering a supportive smile. Who doesn't want an audience to their child's tantrum? The only suggestion I found helpful was when he recommended assisting the parent of a child throwing a tantrum by taking out their groceries. Another thing I didn't like was that the author seemed to expect the reader to believe broad, sweeping statements without providing the research to back them up. This book was very anecdotal. For instance, the author would have been a lot more credible in his disdain for the "cry it out" method if he would have backed that up with evidence, rather than a general statement from his experience counseling adults who were left to cry it out as babies. There were many other things that bothered me. As with any other parenting book, the author claimed that his ideas would solve ALL problems and would fit any parent/child mold. By the end of the book, I wasn't convinced. It also annoyed me that children were never to blame for their problems and it seemed like the parents were held completely responsible for their child's behavior. Your child is acting out, why it's because you're not connected with her! If you played with your child more, she wouldn't be acting like this! The political correctness of it all drove me a little crazy. Instead of calling a temper tantrum a "fit" (therefore blaming the child), let's call it a "fight" and make it "our" problem. There was constant, “Even though a child is acting like this, it really means this.” Of course his assessments would be right some of the time. However, he never seemed to consider other factors. Like maybe a child is hungry or tired or maybe their behavior doesn’t have a logical reason at all! To me, human behavior and motivations are too complex to be dumbed down as much as the author dumbed down kids' behavior. Sometimes there is just one reason for people’s actions, but more often than not, there are several. I didn't necessarily hate this book (despite the multiple times I wanted to chuck it across the room and couldn't--dang e-books). It was just a matter of finding the few gems amongst all that other stuff. This would probably be much higher rated if I had skimmed it and checked it out from the library. I know it will forever change how I view play, and for that, I am grateful. 2 Stars.