I am really excited to finally be reviewing the newest book in L.R. Knost's series of gentle parenting handbooks, The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, and Effective Discipline. Being new to gentle parenting myself and having two toddlers at home, this was just the book I was waiting for! From day one, I tried to always be sensitive to my babies' needs through breastfeeding on demand, co-sleeping, baby wearing and responding to my babies' cries when they needed me. However, they are almost 3 (this month!) and one and a half now, their needs and behaviors have changed a lot since those early days. I am blessed with two very spirited boys and have found myself looking for gentler ways to guide and teach them. I am far from perfect and have a LONG way to go on my parenting journey, starting with learning to deal with my own emotions and not yelling. Written in L.R. Knost's easy to understand and straight to the point style, this book has come at the perfect time for me!
This book is unique in that it covers discipline from birth through the teen years. It is awesome to have such a comprehensive research available. It consists of short, easy to read chapters, which is perfect for busy parents like myself. My boys keep me so busy I barely have time to read these days but books like these are super important for me to read. It has definitely given me a new perspective on quite a few things as well as added some new resources to my bag of tricks (which has been pretty limited so far). For example, I never considered the fact that my boys may be learning not to listen to me right away from my always being busy and asking them to wait or not hearing what they say when they talk to me. I have definitely been guilty of being on my phone and not paying attention yet I expect their immediate attention when they are playing and I talk to them. As L.R. says in the book, communication is a two way street beginning and ending with us, the parents. That is just one of the many insights I have gained from this book. If you are looking for a book to help you control your children or turn them into perfect angels that stay out of your way, this is not the book for you. However, this book is a must read for all parents looking for simple, gentle ways to discipline their children while continuing to build and strengthen their relationship. I, myself, can't wait to start implementing some of the new ideas I have learned from it and to see the fruit of my efforts to parent with love and respect.
Now, without further ado, here is the lovely L.R. with a chapter by chapter synopsis of the book:
Chapter 1 The Problem with Punishment offers
insight on the punishment versus discipline debate.
A Gentle Beginning
Chapter 2 Foundations: Setting the Stage for
Discipline shares how our parenting choices in the first days and weeks and
months of our children’s lives affect discipline in later stages.
Chapter 3 Castles in the Air: Building on Trust
shows how laying a foundation of trust and building on it day by day, night by
night, gentle response by gentle response creates the parent/child relationship
essential to gentle discipline.
Chapter 4 Safe Surroundings shares simple ways to
use baby proofing as visual boundaries to begin gentle limit-setting.
Chapter 5 Reasonable Expectations offers insight
into normal child development and how our expectations affect our parenting.
Chapter 6 The Three C’s of Gentle Discipline
presents the basic tools of gentle discipline and their components.
Toddler Time
Chapter 7 Sandbox Soapbox: Toddler Insights shares
parenting insights from a toddler’s perscpective.
Chapter 8 Toddlers, Tantrums, and Time-In’s, Oh my!
gives specific interventions and preventions for coping with and preventing
tantrums.
Chapter 9 When Things Get Physical: Hitting, Kicking,
Throwing, and Biting offers tools for working through the physical stage
with toddlers and preschoolers.
Chapter 10 Testing the Boundaries shares insights
and parenting techniques for guiding children through testing behaviors.
Chapter 11 Parenting in Public provides specific
parenting tools for coping with behaviors in public places such as parks,
shops, and restaurants.
Chapter 12 Crying Wolf: Don’t Be an Old Yeller!
gives insight into the consequences of yelling at children.
Chapter 13 Toxic Parenting: Spanking, Shaming,
Threatening, Manipulating contrasts peaceful, connected parenting with
punitive, controlling parenting and their outcomes.
Chapter 14 All the ‘Right’ Parenting Moves gives
insight into the basic truth that we are imperfect humans raising imperfect
humans in an imperfect world and therefore no parenting will produce
perfection.
A Preschooler with a
Plan
Chapter 15 Hurting Parents, Hurting Children shares
ways parents can heal from their emotional baggage instead of passing that
baggage along to the next generation.
Chapter 16 The Gift of a Strong-Willed Child offers
parents with the tools to help children gifted with a rich and vibrant spirit
blossom while still providing them with guidance and limits.
Chapter 17 You’re Not the Boss of Me redefines
defiance to give parents a new perspective and offers insights to help parents
work through the more challenging behaviors of childhood.
Chapter 18 A Place for Me shares the value of
children having a small space of their own to escape from the stresses and
sensory overload that can often spark behavioral issues.
Chapter 19 When Children Act Out: Reflecting Our
Emotions provides insight into the often unexpected outbursts that signal a
child’s need for help in coping with family issues.
Chapter 20 For Everything There is a Season
encourages parents to slow down and recognize the basic truth that children are
not small adults and to appreciate the beauty of childhood through the eyes of
their children.
Middle Childhood:
Becoming Their Own Person
Chapter 21 Thoughtful Cooperation vs. Thoughtless
Compliance offers tools for equipping children with inner guidance systems
rather than external controls.
Chapter 22 The Butterfly Effect shares intentional
shifts we can make in our parenting choices to change the trajectory of our
children’s future.
Chapter 23 The Color of Change provides
step-by-step changes parents can make to move from a punitive, control-based
parenting style to connected, communication-based parenting.
Chapter 24 Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Parenting a
‘Problem’ Child offers insight into the world of the sensitive child and
offers parents the tools to guide and support their sensory-gifted children
gently and successfully.
Chapter 25 Raising Problem Solvers shares strategies
to help parents provide their children with effective problem-solving tools to
take into the future.
Gentle Parenting:
Teens and Beyond
Chapter 26 Children of Violence gives a glimpse
into a real-world scenario that children experience every day and offers
insight into the root of violence and bullying in our society.
Chapter 27 The Discipline of Choice examines the
life lessons learned through a teen’s their own choices and the value of
unconditional support from a connected parent.
Chapter 28 Helping Hurting Teens compares and
contrasts the results of punitive, control-based parenting on adolescents and
offers parents alternatives to punishments.
Chapter 29 Twelve Life Lessons for Daughters and Chapter
30 Twelve
Life Lessons for Sons reach out and touch parents’ hearts to reawaken their
memories of their own adolescent struggles and esteem issues to help them
connect with where their teens are so that they can more empathetically and
effectively guide them through the often turbulent adolescent years.
Appendix A
Five Gentle Tools for
Handling Lying shares a practical and gentle approach to lying.
Appendix B
Backtalk is
Communication – LISTEN tackles the startling truth that when children talk
back they are actually communicating.
Appendix C
Twelve Steps to
Gentle Parenting: Setting Yourself Up for Success offers
a twelve month, step-by-step approach to work toward a more gentle style of
parenting.
This post is part of the Virtual Book Tour for the launch of L.R.Knost's newest release The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, Effective Discipline. Click here if you’d like to check out all of the other stops on the tour!
About the Author:
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Best-selling parenting and children’s book author and mother
of six, L.R.Knost, is an independent child development researcher and founder
and director of the advocacy and consulting group, Little Hearts/Gentle
Parenting Resources. Two Thousand Kisses
a Day: Gentle Parenting Through the Ages and Stages and Whispers Through Time: Communication Through the Ages and Stages of
Childhood are the first in her Little
Hearts Handbooks series of parenting guides. The newest book in the series,
The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical,
Effective Discipline was just released on November 1, 2013. Other works by
this award-winning author include the children's picture books Petey’s Listening Ears, and the
soon-to-be-released Grumpykins series
for ages 2 to 6, which are humorous and engaging tools for parents, teachers,
and caregivers to use in implementing gentle parenting techniques in their
homes and schools.
Here is the book trailer:
Buy the book:
You may purchase the book on Amazon here. The paperback is only $8.09 and the Kindle version is $3.99, making the book super affordable for parents, just as all of L.R. Knost's books.
A special bonus:
L.R. Knost will be publishing a series of gentle parenting workshops which will be short and will each cover a specific subject. The workshops will normally be $.99 but on November 10th, the last day of The Gentle Parent book tour, you will be able to download the first workshop in the series, "Getting Started on Your Gentle Journey" for free on Amazon by clicking here so make sure to check back then and get your free copy!
A Giveaway:
L.R. has been kind enough to offer my readers a chance to win a copy of her previous book, "Whispers Through Time: Communication Through The Ages and Stages", which I reviewed here. Giveaway ends Friday, November 8th, 2013. winner will be announced here and on the Diary of a Natural Mom Facebook page once the contest is over. Please see Rafflecopter form below to enter.
