Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting: Five Strategies That End the Daily… (edition 2013)

Full disclosure - I only got about halfway through the book. I enjoyed the part I did read, but I felt like it was too much to try to implement all at once. I've used a few of the techniques, probably not quite to the full extent advised, and had good results.
The author is a good writer - I hope she'll write further books, but I advise a shorter / more concise format.

Yet another parenting book that promises to make parents' lives easier and kids' behavior better. Maybe these methods might work, but I just couldn't see myself using them or my children taking me seriously.

The biggest challenge with this book is applying the concepts. They sound very positive, realistic and doable but some things sound a lot easier than it is. Primarily because we as parents have fallen into bad habits like lecturing or yelling which does not give us desired results. With practice, I think our family could successfully use these strategies to improve our family dynamics (and lower the adults' blood pressure when a kid yells "No!" at us!)

Janis-Norton helpfully explains in detail how to use the strategies to get your kids to do what you want them to do the first time. One that is truly useful and builds up a child's self esteem and sense of empowerment is noting aloud to them every time you notice them doing something positive or closer to the way you want them to behave. Not just stereotypical praise like "good job" but a detailed, objective comment like "when you pick up all your toys off the floor, you can walk across the floor without tripping on anything".

The book is clear and easy to read and I have already recommended it to several of my mom friends. It's just a matter of training ourselves to utilize the strategies consistently. This book gives me hope that parenting will eventually be calmer, easier, and happier (hopefully before they -or I- move out of the house!) ( )

A great resource for parents at the end of their wits dealing with their children, this book offers a course of action with practical, do-able steps to curtail misbehavior, whining, frustration, fussy eating, procrastination and many other problems that parents may encounter. The author has over 40 years of experience as a classroom teacher and parent educator. Vignettes, sample dialogs and charts parents can use make this a very helpful tool.

I can't review the entire book yet, but what I've read so far is useful. I love the author's suggestion to read the first chapter of ideas and then put the book down for a week or two to practice those suggestions until they become habit. Then add the next tool into your arsenal.

The first set of suggestions has worked okay for our family so far, although I haven't seen the dramatic results that some of the parents quoted in the book did. On to the second chapter and a new suggestion... ( )