Description:
Educational consultant Marilyn Gootman wants to change your definition of discipline. Whether you are dealing with a dawdling toddler or a grungy teenager's room, she suggests that discipline should provide a lesson in self-control rather than punishment. Gootman underlines this practical premise in The Loving Parents' Guide to Discipline. As she explains, "Punishment focuses on bad behavior. The goal of discipline is to teach your child to do the right thing. This includes guiding, encouraging, building self-esteem as well as correcting misbehavior." Thankfully, Gootman avoids gimmicky solutions. Instead, she begins her comprehensive guide with an eloquent argument against spanking. Then, she invites parents to revisit common discipline pitfalls--food fights, jumping on the bed, feuding siblings, dogs who eat homework, toddler or teen tantrums, four-letter words, and white lies--as teachable moments. Gootman's smart strategies--including "low-key discipline," limit setting, encouragement rather than praise, problem solving, and using consequences instead of punishment--enable parents to teach children to avoid repeating their mistakes. The author's thoughtful approach explores a dozen reasons why kids misbehave along with provocative insights about how parents can examine their past baggage and harness the anger triggered by discipline dustups. The wisdom of Gootman's approach is summed up in her suggestion that discipline is something parents do with children, rather than to them. --Barbara Mackoff
| 
