Keep Calm and Parent On

Emma Jenner. 

Read in December&January

I absolutely love Keep Calm and Parent On. 

There's a chapter on sleep. I don't agree with all of it, and I think that's ok. There's always take it and leave it in parenting/self help books for me. I understand where she's coming from, children need to cry sometimes just like adults. But I'm not comfortable letting my baby, who can't tell me with words yet how he's feeling, cry to sleep. Older kids, when you know that's just what they need, fine. Sometimes I just need to cry and get the extra tired out. There's a lot of other great helpful information in it though, even in that chapter actually. Especially on mothers judging other mothers. What I love most about any parenting book is that it gets me thinking and evaluating myself and keeps me mindful of my kids and that they need me. 

Those of you who read parenting books, why do you?

I feel like Carter (1) has a bit to go before some of this but it's definitely applicable to Aiden (3). Kids learning "no", applicable now. Me saying please instead of commanding, applicable now. Communicating the behavior I expect ahead of time, not applicable quite yet. Consequences, that's a little hard to enforce right now. They're easily distracted and likely won't remember a consequence. 

I feel a lot more comfortable with parenting when my child is talking more, communicating through sentences. I hate the guess work of the baby stage. I really liked the communication chapter. 

On encouraging independent play, rather than being available at all times, I could not agree more. It was especially helpful that Aiden could comfortably play by himself when I had Carter. The key was making sure he had quality time with me first. 

On overprotectiveness:

"Parents put so much pressure on themselves and try to control far too much."

"We don't need to stand guard over our children, but we do need to teach them, and then trust them."

This I wholeheartedly agree with, also. Kids are far more capable than we tend to think. We want to shelter them from all harm and we don't want to let them get into stuff for fear they could get hurt. 

I love these quotes on self-esteem: "building self-esteem should be about helping a kid feel ok when he's lost, not creating an illusion that he's won." "...give your child the encouragement and praise he needs to be himself, and the tools to handle the disappointments and hard knocks that will inevitably come his way."

I could go on and on. This is a great book. It has a lot of information and advice for common problem areas, all centering on your child being a person too. (Which I love.) I cannot recommend this book enough. It's awesome! 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1476739544/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?pc_redir=T1#