Most parenting books focus on the practicalities of parenting. This book is different. This book helps parents learn to deal with the negative emotions that are an inevitable part of parenting.
Being able to monitor your feelings, name them, own them, soothe yourself, take a calming breath and think before acting, can transform your parenting and family life.
In this book, Katherine Gordy Levine, a counselor, Professor of social work, parent and foster parent to almost 400 troubled teens, will be your Parenting Coach and the topic is 'Emotional Fitness'.
The key to ensuring your children's happiness is ensuring that you yourself are emotionally fit. You cannot teach resilience, self-control, acting with love, being grateful and self-respect, if you don't have these emotional fitness skills yourself.
The emotional fitness exercises, which are explained with many examples, and are adaptable to personal situations and preferences, smooth out the bumps in day-to-day family life and deal with the guilt, anger and self-doubt that so many adults find themselves struggling with as parents.
Praise for Parents Are People Too "This is a genuine, heartwarming and practical book for all of us who find that we are not flawless parents. Her book gives pragmatic simple calming "exercises" that really work."
"She is the new Spock. Reading her book was like having an experienced, learned grandmother (who just happens to be up on all the latest research in child development and psychology) help with the nitty-gritty of dealing with all the negative feelings and stress being a parent creates."
"Honest and open advice to parents who hear too much advice. Refreshing and healing. Insightful and practical."
A personal note from the author As foster parents for thirteen years, my husband, David, and I cared for a constantly changing group of children and adolescents. By the time we stopped, we had served as foster parents to a total of 369 kids.
Every one of them taught us something. But one of the most important lessons was realizing that when I handled my feelings properly, I handled the kids better. If I felt guilty or angry or anxious and let those feelings control me, the kids and I suffered.
I never found a book devoted to helping me handle my feelings so I could be a better parent. I decided, therefore, to write this book, to provide tools that will help parents and others to better control the negative feelings that accompany caring for a child. |