Reviews for The Child's Bill of Rights: A Beginner's Guide to Parenting

The average rating for The Child's Bill of Rights: A Beginner's Guide to Parenting based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-16 00:00:00 Thomas Dinges This book provided a decent overview of what one might expect when moving a family overseas. There were some helpful hints and plenty of food for thought here. I was a bit off-put by her assumption that when one takes a position abroad one earns a lot of money, has a relocation service or company backing during the move and household help after. Her recommendation to turn to those extra privileges when things get tough is not appropriate for everyone. Those of us who live this life are privileged to have the opportunity to live in many different places, meet many kinds of people and have all sorts of zany experiences, but not all of us have the privilege of company backing, high-paying positions, a relocation service, household help, or even job security. As the wife of a researcher, I found this book lacking in the gritty details of helping kids to not only live through, but thrive in this kind of nomadic life. That said, I found Pascoe's anecdotes and tips reassuring and appreciated the final chapter on identity development.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-10-20 00:00:00 David Zielinski Very interesting book on parenting Third Culture Kids (TCK). I found most interesting the chapters about identity, culture shock and grief. On Identity "Global citizenship does not mean giving up a sense of roots so much as extending our sense of what roots involve." "The concept of nationality presents global nomads (TCK) with an interesting paradox. For many of us, nationality is relatively uninformative as a cultural descriptor, at least in the long term." It's true for my family as well as other "nomad" families that the nationality on your passport does not tell much about your culture. It can be difficult to answer the question "Where are you from?" As she said, "You can't find where you come from on a map." I live in South Africa now and I find the national celebration of "Heritage Day" (a public holiday here) such a fantastic idea! In local and international schools (and even at work) people are encouraged to dress up with clothes from the country, countries or regions they're "from" and bring art, food or tell stories from there. It has a very positive effect on TCK because they can express the complexity of their "heritage" and see the complexity of other kids' heritage. On culture shock I can be mild, it can be severe depending on how different the new country is, how prepared the family is, etc. One thing I learned is that even when you're very happy with the move, you can still experience culture shock. "A child's shock may mimic an adult's but children lack the verbal skills to express their feelings or if they're teenagers, may choose not to activate their verbal skills. That's why it helps when parents provide the words. The words capture the meaning of the situation and also help the child accept his feelings." So "Keep an eye open for those children with a lost look." That's so true! On Grief Grief for the people and the things we left behind. "Most books place relocation high on the list of event that can trigger grief, along with more obvious major events such as death and divorce." Just like not everybody will react the same way to death or divorce, not everybody will react the same way to the grief caused by a relocation. "Sensitive people want to be rooted and find it exceedingly difficult each time they must leave friends and family." Some will thrive, others won't, and will need some time to settle in. "An exciting new expatriate life can emerge only once all the stages of grief - shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance - are acknowledged." This is such a lovely book on the theme of relocation, but it can also be very informative for multicultural families. Read it if you have a Third Culture Kid.