Anyone Can Have a Happy Child: How to Nurture Emotional Intelligence

Rating:
Summary: Good, Practical Parenting Advice
Review: I found this book to be a very practical guide to parenting. The book strikes a helpful balance between general and specific advice for fostering good character and good behavior in terms of the child's personal accomplishments and social behavior. A key insight of the book is to respond with approval or disapproval to specific behavior at the time the behavior is displayed and to make clear what your expectations are. That made a lot of sense to me, and I have found it helpful in parenting my two pre-teen sons -- I find I work harder to figure out and say what I expect from them, behavior-wise! The author disapproves of trying to improve behavior by lengthy discussions about "why you did that", which seems right to me, but maybe he should include a chapter on the "right" kind of conversations to have with your child to show interest in what he or she is doing and feeling. Overall, one of the better parenting self-help books.

Rating:
Summary: Skinner would have been proud, but he didn't have my child!
Review: I purchased this book because of a recent article in Psychology Today. I'm sorry I bought it, but I'm glad it's not selling very well. If my kid was a rat or pigeon, maybe this book would have something to offer. But it contains little more than the same predictable, oversimplified, circumscribed view of my child offered by many therapists and other books, along with corresponding (unhelpful) strategies. If you're looking for a resource to help you understand your child better and parent in a way that is responsive to who your child is, look elsewhere.