Rating: 
Summary: Control Your Children!
Review: As parents of a three year old, my wife and I often encounter parents who seem to be ruled by the whims of their young children. You don't have to be an expert on child development to know that a young child needs boundaries and discipline. And yet so many parents today are reluctant to provide this. By trying to be their child's "friend" they are faling the child as parents. In this excellent little book, the authors provide a welcome antidote to much of the so-called "child centric" theory currently in vogue. According to this book, childhood is to be divided into a number of periods with the appropriate parental relationship different in each period. In the period covered by this book, 3-7, the authors stress the need for parents to bring their children under the control of parental authority. Only once children respect the authority of their parents can they be taught the important lessons and values that will turn them into healthy adults. The authors provide numerous case studies of situations in which parents do or do not act appropriately. At the end of each chapter they provide review questions. Each chapter concerns a different area of potential trouble. For example in one chapter the authors condem the notion of excessive choice. In another chapter, the authors discuss the vital importance of discipline and stress the absolute necessity that every act of discipline impart a lesson that the parents are teaching. In other words, discipline should never be out of anger but as an instructional tool. This book has a great deal to offer. Many parents don't realize the harm they are doing their children through overindulgence. WHen I see friends whose children have no bedtime, whose older children refuse to stay in their rooms at night, who refuse to do their homework, who will not eat dinner at the family table, who rule the household, I realize that the pendulum has swung to far in the other direction. I think the authors are a little inflexible on certain issues. For example, I find that providing children with choices (reasonable ones of course) can give them a sense of empowerment. The trick is to make them choose "A" or "B" not to give them the choice of saying "no" altogether. This book provides food for thought. I highly recommend that readers of this book read Dr. Spock's Guide to Baby and Childcare. Spock is not the child centered theorist that people think and he too argues that children need structure, discipline and a sense that their parents are authority figures.
Rating: 
Summary: lifestyle excellent
Review: extremely useful ... good commonsense info that isn't so commonly practiced
Rating: 
Summary: UnWise
Review: Gary Ezzo is not qualified to give feeding and babycare advice. He has been discredited over and over, and dropped by his publishser. He continues to publish these on his own. Look up Gary Ezzo on the internet for the critiques of this material. Don't do this to your baby!
Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful!
Review: I am the mother of two children. My six year old is naturally sweet and fairly compliant. My four year old has such a joyful spirit, but I could not seem to get the child to obey. This became a very dangerous situation one day while playing outside. We had often played in this park that was fenced in next to a busy road, but this particular day he squeezed through the bars of the fence and started running around in circles near the road. With tremendous fear, I screamed and cried and pleaded for him to come back (there was no way I could sqeeze through, climb over, or even go around the fence), but he just liked doing things his own way. There was no way for me to get to him. It finally occured to me to send his sister in after him and she returned him to me safely.
I knew at that point that I had to do something or this child was going to kill himself. I was wary of actually purchasing this book since Gary Ezzo has been the target of such bad press, so I checked it out at the library to see what it had to say.
I noticed a difference in his behavior right away. Just simply insisting that the children respond to me with "Yes, Mommy," allows them to verbally agree that they are going to obey me.
I was so worried that if I toughened up at all that I would crush his sweet little spirit, but that hasn't happened. He still has that little twinkle in his eye and is full of enthusiasm for life. He's just happier now because he clearly knows his boundaries.
Rating:
Summary: Not the same thing
Review: I have not read this book yet but was looking for comments about it first. I'm surprised to see in the reviews that some people think discipline means the same thing as punishment. It does not. Discipline (coming from the word disciple) means "to teach" not "to punish". Does this author suggest spanking as a method of punishing? If so, I don't want to buy the book. I gave four stars so as not to change the overall rating since I have not read the book yet (I did the math before submitting.)
Rating:
Summary: I encourage you to read this book
Review: I have worked the baby wise and now child wise concepts in my home since my first born arrived a little over 2 years ago. My husband and I are constantly amazed at the results we get by following a few basic ideals. Even our pediatrician asked if we followed the babywise/childwise philosophy. I said yes, how did you know? Her answer was simple and direct. She said, "I've seen thousands of children and the babywise (childwise) children are consistantly healthy and very confident" She continued to sing the praises of these books and our child. In fact, at our 2 year check up she gave us, the parents, an A+. I can't tell you how gratifying a feeling that is for a first time parent. I've read the negative reviews on Mr. Ezzo's books and I'm baffled. But if you read the reviews of the parents that actually read and applied the philosphy in these books to there own children, most of those reviews are positive. That says a lot. The final proof to myself that I'm doing the right thing by my child is the behavior of many of the kids in my moms' group. All the children (around 25) are within 2 months in age. The other moms ask me, how do you get your son to mind? He actually comes when you say, "Come here". He listens when you say no. He takes his nap everyday. He goes to bed without incident at night. He eats the dinner you put in front of him...I could go on and on. My son and I had a play date with one of them yesterday. Her child has been "on-demand" feeding since day one and has always slept in the parents' bed. This whole week, the child wouldn't take a nap and has had hysterical melt-downs every afternoon. She finally fell asleep while we were there (around 5pm) and slept for a short while, only to be up until midnight that night. The mother cries to me, "I don't know what to do". I wish I could tell her Babywise (Childwise), but I don't think the mom is willing to change what she's been doing. But you can...start from day one with Babywise. It's hard work at first, but trust me, it pays off in the long run and you too can have healthy, confident and wonderful children.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of Bad Reviews
Review: I read and applied the principles prior to reading the reviews on this site. Based on my own personal experiences, on what other parents have told me about my child, and how my parents and other grandparents have told me about my child, I can say that the principles are an unqualified success! After reading the negative reviews, I really felt compelled to write a review in defense of the book. I do not know the Ezzos, but I would love to meet them and thank them for the principles they outline in the book. My parents can tell you that they practiced many things that were opposite of what is in this book and they can see a big difference between my daughter and what my sister and I were like at similar ages. In addition, I have friends who we recommended the book to who were skeptical at first but have thanked us many times over for recommending it to them. It would be interesting to know if the negative reviews actually come from people who have TRIED the methods from this book or if they were raised from another school of thought and automatically discredit the book due to their own biases. I'd be interested to find out what their children are like not by asking the reviewers but by asking the baby-sitters, the teachers and anyone else exposed to their children. That is where the true test lie. The proof is in the pudding. Don't believe the naysayers without finding out what their children are actually like.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves More Than 5 Stars!
Review: I'm a mother with several degrees in child development and child psychology and this book is of more value for parents than anything I've learned in all my years of higher education!!! Read it! You and your children will be glad you did for years to come!!!
Rating:
Summary: Big Yuck!
Review: If you want to be as distant from your child as you can, this book is for you. If you want to have big trouble with your children when they become teens, by all means Ezzoize. If you want to start out your baby's life by putting her in a cage by herself without means to change her situation, this book is for you. If you value ease now and hardship and big pain later buy this book. If you don't think a baby's cry is every bit as serious as it sounds, buy Ezzo's trash. As for me, my copy is in the fireplace. I won't give it to my worst enemy.
Rating:
Summary: Positive mom LOVES this book!
Review: Of course, I do NOT agree with everything in this book and i am not religious at all. HOWEEVR< that is how I feel abut most parenting books, i take what works for me and ignore the rest. I am baffled at how many moms who consider themselves positive think this books is not compatible with a positive parenting method. Of course it is! I loved it and have modified it to fit my VERY "positive" approach to parenting and my TWINS are becomming very well behaved (yet still fun loving free spirits) by my following some of what this book suggests. I do give my children decisions, redirect, no spanking or yelling etc --- and I also have the veto power by using MOMMY decisions - and say NO from tiem to time - as it should be. I am the parent, not the big sister! Too many people confuse positive parenting with "over indulgence" and they are at times raising spoiled brats who will probably have a harder time in their lives as adults... I love my kids and feel no guilt by using some of these methods to teach them respect and to teach them mommy is the boss... I do not see that as negative in any way... so, please read this book if you are, like me, a positive mom, who still wants your childrens respect.
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