ParentShift offers a paradigm shift for parents looking for a different parenting style for raising kids. The authors looked at how American parents usually fall into two categories -- controlling or permissive. Controlling parents tend to set too many limits, place unreasonably high expectations, and fail to demonstrate enough empathy with their kids. Permissive parents go the other way by tending to be weak limit and boundary setters, expecting too little, and being empathetic to the fault of treating their children’s problems as their own.

This book teaches a distinct parenting style that the authors describe as heart-centered. Heart-centered parents set strong limits and boundaries, know how to genuinely empathize with their kids, and have high and reasonable expectations of them. The authors show how these skills are associated with children who are kind, confident, compassionate, capable, resilient, and healthy.

They also explain why most adults need to learn this parenting style because most were not raised in a heart-centered way themselves. That’s why they describe it as a paradigm shift and call the book ParentShift.

The book is structured as a practical guidebook, with explanations and common-sense exercises for how to apply the lessons in real life. It is not aimed at solving one particular problem or navigating one particular age. In fact, much of the book’s advice applies to getting along with adults as much as it does with parenting. ParentShift aims to help parents identify and address virtually any challenge at any age, although it probably would be most helpful for parents, grandparents, caregivers, and teachers of children around age three to five.… (more)

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RoseCityReader | 1 other review | Oct 26, 2019 |

Relax It's Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your… by Wendy Thomas Russell

Relax, It’s Just God by Wendy Thomas Russell. I wanted to read this for pointers on talking with my kids about others’ beliefs after they’ve come home from school repeating some unexpected things from classmates.
In the spirit of honesty, I am not only a non-believer, but I don’t generally have a favorable view, I’ve had bad experiences, mistreatment, bullying and ridicule from others in the name of religion. While this book is written for secular, non-religious or atheistic families, I think religious families could benefit from the points made in this book, to see other points of view. I want to be able to be able familiarize my kids about all religions in a way that makes them understanding, tolerant and kind, without coloring that too much with my negative experiences. I want them to know that what any person believes is not right or wrong, just different. I want my kids to accept all people, regardless of background, belief, or religion.
There are many great points this book makes but the thing I find most important is to let your children figure out what they believe on their own. Like anything else, give them the information, teach them HOW to think, not WHAT to think. It was my first inclination to just ignore religion because we don’t practice any at home. It didn’t occur to me that if I don’t teach my kids about religion objectively, someone else will. (And unlike us secular parents, it may not be presented in an open and tolerant way.) I don’t want to indoctrinate my kids into any belief, and I don’t want anyone else doing that either. This is a difficult concept for me, as I know that other families are actively teaching their kids that their religion is the best way, the only way, so why shouldn’t I teach our kids that about my own non-belief? It comes down to wanting my kids to think for themselves and giving them the tools to do so.
This is a good read for anyone struggling to talk to your kids about difficult, divisive subjects. Religion, gun control, Coke vs Pepsi. Helping kids separate beliefs from facts, accepting people regardless of belief and learning to think are great tools for any family. Maybe if more people approached these conversations with openness and understanding the world would be less of a mess. 4.5/5 stars ⭐️… (more)

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justjoshinreads | 2 other reviews | Mar 22, 2019 |

Relax, It's Just God: How and Why to Talk to… by Wendy T Russell

A guide for parents who are not conventionally religious and who want to raise children who are independent critical thinkers and both religiously literate and tolerant of others’ beliefs. For a slim, easy-to-read book, it’s surprisingly wide-ranging; it covers the why of both religious literacy and critical thinking (letting your kids figure out their own beliefs rather than indoctrinating them in your own), tips for establish both, and advice for common pitfalls, including dealing with death, pushy relatives, and schoolyard bullies. Useful and often entertaining to read, the book often compares discussing religion with your children to discussing sex: If you don’t talk about it with them, they’ll hear about it somewhere else. And pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it go away.… (more)

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jholcomb | 2 other reviews | Jul 4, 2015 |

Relax, it's just God : how and why to talk to your… by Wendy T. Russell

About the author, quoting from the inside of the back cover: "Wendy Thomas Russell is an award-winning journalist, author and secular-parenting blogger. A native Midwesterner and former newspaper reporter, Russell and her work have been featured in numerous publications, both print and online. She lives in Long Beach, California with her husband and daughter and can be found, virtually speaking, at www.wendythomasrussell.com or on Twitter @WendyRussell.The author believes in giving children choices from a very early age, whether it's what to wear or what to believe. She's stresses talking to children in age appropriate language. The important thing is to converse about science, facts and religious beliefs in a tolerant manner. Her book is an easy read and she lets you know that you're probably going make some mistakes along the way, but that silence on any subject, especially one as important as religion, is the really big mistake.The appendix includes a cheat sheet, giving brief descriptions of many of the world's great religions.The endnotes provide valuable online and traditional resources.… (more)

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uufnn | 2 other reviews | Sep 4, 2015 |

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