Conscious Parenting

Rating:
Summary: If you're serious about parenting, READ THIS BOOK!
Review: If you are looking for a book that will allow you to justify mediocre parenting--this is not it. If you are looking for a book that will say "Don't feel guilty for making your child sacrifice her needs to yours"--this is not it. If you are looking for a book that says you can raise a happy, healthy child by pulling them out of the crib, sticking a bottle in their mouth and shuttling them off to daycare--THIS IS NOT IT!

With that said, this book is a deep and honest look at how the way we parent affects our children. It covers most every conceivable parenting issue, giving real insight and practicle advice. But don't expect to be spoonfed! Conscious Parenting teaches that to raise a whole child, you must be a whole parent. To do so, you must be willing to take a hard, honest look at yourself. It can be very unsettling to see how many neurosis we have developed since (or because of) our own childhoods.

The book reads easily. Lozowick is down to earth, reflective and funny. His life experience and sincerety make this book much more than just another parenting manual--this book will help you become the parent you wish your parents were--conscious ones.

I have read this book four times, and recommend it to everyone!

Rating:
Summary: If you're serious about parenting, READ THIS BOOK!
Review: If you are looking for a book that will allow you to justify mediocre parenting--this is not it. If you are looking for a book that will say "Don't feel guilty for making your child sacrifice her needs to yours"--this is not it. If you are looking for a book that says you can raise a happy, healthy child by pulling them out of the crib, sticking a bottle in their mouth and shuttling them off to daycare--THIS IS NOT IT!

With that said, this book is a deep and honest look at how the way we parent affects our children. It covers most every conceivable parenting issue, giving real insight and practicle advice. But don't expect to be spoonfed! Conscious Parenting teaches that to raise a whole child, you must be a whole parent. To do so, you must be willing to take a hard, honest look at yourself. It can be very unsettling to see how many neurosis we have developed since (or because of) our own childhoods.

The book reads easily. Lozowick is down to earth, reflective and funny. His life experience and sincerety make this book much more than just another parenting manual--this book will help you become the parent you wish your parents were--conscious ones.

I have read this book four times, and recommend it to everyone!

Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: If you believe that not breastfeeding your child until they're 5 and returning to work are forms of child abuse - yes, child abuse - then, Congratulations! This is the book for you. I was disappointed in this book because I had heard a great deal of praise for the author and the premise - understanding the spiritual connection between parenting your own children and the greater good of society as a whole - sounded interesting. Certainly not your typical parenting book and a refreshing perspective. In theory.

Lee Lozowick is known for his pragmatic, straight forward style, and while I appreciate that, personally, I found some of the viewpoints - particulary those related to early childhood - very one-sided and dogmatic with no real reasoning or support or willingness to acknowledge different styles of parenting or even the different and often difficult circumstances which face parents today. To be honest, I was so disgusted I couldn't get through the entire thing, so I'm giving it 2 stars based solely on the author's reupatation. But this book was a big zero for me.

I would recommend the Path of Parenting by Vimala McClure is you're interested in a parenting book with a spiritual connection.

Rating:
Summary: a Gold Standard .... but
Review: in my opinion this book does set some kind of Gold standard: its original, alive and passionate, often full of common sense, sometimes taking a very relaxed approach, and it does really set the groundwork basics of being a parent to young children from an alternative view. his knowledge and insight is often very interesting and he doesn't have the kind of Do This, 1, 2 3, kind of approach which make many parenting books both tedious and undermining for parents.

So I highly recommend this book, whether you find it agreeable or not, i believe it is very thought-provoking about what passes for mainstream childcare 'out there'and I found it also generally inspiring.

However, I do have a But, its a small But, but important. For me, the book does set a gold standard but life does not always support that. To give a recent example, the author is very much against TV for babies and young children, something I agree with myself, and I have never put my son in front of TV or videos to amuse himself. However, with my son at age 1 1/2, I got ill. I am a single parent with virtually no social support. And, yes, I let my son watch a video. He became pretty much addicted to it over a period of a couple of weeks, which became a real pain, and he is only now just gradually getting bored with it (and I am not giving him any new videos). However, during that time real life just made it very very difficult for me to maintain my principles, and I think in that case it could have actually been quite damaging to do so, when it would have been hugely stressful for me to try and cope with all the demands being made on me at the time. The author sometimes writes about his normal American background, other times he writes about the community he lives in and what mothers do there - but many of his readers will not live in a spiritual community where everyone helps everyone: life can be a little more complex than that in everyday world. I think it is very hard here to raise children when we are surrounded by materialism and "selfishness". The author gives a much-needed guide in these times, but it is not always so easy to live up to. Hope this is a useful review.

By the way, the concluding few pages alone make the book worth buying. His conclusion on parenting, what it really is, is simply amazing, like a form of poetry, and I haven't come across anything quite like it.

Rating:
Summary: a Gold Standard .... but
Review: Lozowick's wisdom is gleamed from years of experience as a parent as well as his far reaching knowledge of human psychology as a leader of an intentional community. In conventional terms, this book will seem highly controversial and push many peoples buttons. However, you don't have to agree with everything he says to benefit from the book. A reviewer below makes the unsubstantiated claim that breastfeeding a child until five years old is child abuse. My child just stopped breastfeeding at five, and as a Father it was sometimes hard for me to get used to, BUT it has definitely Not been an abusive circumstance to my child. If anything, my daughter is a more secure individual who feels the world is a very safe loving place. She is percieved by many to be unusually intelligent, aware and extremely well behaved. Why?(all parental bias aside) because of the principals found in this book. Most people are afraid, or totally unwilling to consider such ideas. This book is filled with plenty of sound reasoning. Yes, there are some esoteric claims that even rubbed me wrong, but overall the basic ideas are completely sound. Lozowick has also done his fair share of research, so some of his claims definately do come from areas of independent research. As a parent, most of the people I have shared these ideas with are reluctant to consider them. In my opinion, they are not willing to examine their own assumptions and conditioning. This book is an antidote to such things. It will enable any honest well meaning parent to rexamine themselves and their motives, their past, etc. The concept of Bonding is too little understood in the United States. My daughter never had a stroller, we always carried her close to our bodies in a sling and I know she is the better for it. Many parents are just plain lazy, or not willing to think/feel for themselves and stand behind it. This book for the most part is heavy on common sense, which is growing rarer these days as we allow quick fixes and technology to further invade our lives. Conscious Parenting's underlying premise, in terms of methodology, is that there is no easy answer, but rather that good parenting is achieved through conscious sacrifice, total commitment and the constant willingness to own up to our own short comings. For most, that is unreasonable. But really, How unreasonable is it to Not use the television as a babysitter, and to preserve your child against the constant onslaught of violent images that flood every avenue of media. I praise Lozowick. if you do not rush to judgment, and are willing to contemplate some of his ideas over a sufficient length of time, you cannot but be richly rewarded.

Rating:
Summary: A Totally Useful Handbook
Review: Lozowick's wisdom is gleamed from years of experience as a parent as well as his far reaching knowledge of human psychology as a leader of an intentional community. In conventional terms, this book will seem highly controversial and push many peoples buttons. However, you don't have to agree with everything he says to benefit from the book. A reviewer below makes the unsubstantiated claim that breastfeeding a child until five years old is child abuse. My child just stopped breastfeeding at five, and as a Father it was sometimes hard for me to get used to, BUT it has definitely Not been an abusive circumstance to my child. If anything, my daughter is a more secure individual who feels the world is a very safe loving place. She is percieved by many to be unusually intelligent, aware and extremely well behaved. Why?(all parental bias aside) because of the principals found in this book. Most people are afraid, or totally unwilling to consider such ideas. This book is filled with plenty of sound reasoning. Yes, there are some esoteric claims that even rubbed me wrong, but overall the basic ideas are completely sound. Lozowick has also done his fair share of research, so some of his claims definately do come from areas of independent research. As a parent, most of the people I have shared these ideas with are reluctant to consider them. In my opinion, they are not willing to examine their own assumptions and conditioning. This book is an antidote to such things. It will enable any honest well meaning parent to rexamine themselves and their motives, their past, etc. The concept of Bonding is too little understood in the United States. My daughter never had a stroller, we always carried her close to our bodies in a sling and I know she is the better for it. Many parents are just plain lazy, or not willing to think/feel for themselves and stand behind it. This book for the most part is heavy on common sense, which is growing rarer these days as we allow quick fixes and technology to further invade our lives. Conscious Parenting's underlying premise, in terms of methodology, is that there is no easy answer, but rather that good parenting is achieved through conscious sacrifice, total commitment and the constant willingness to own up to our own short comings. For most, that is unreasonable. But really, How unreasonable is it to Not use the television as a babysitter, and to preserve your child against the constant onslaught of violent images that flood every avenue of media. I praise Lozowick. if you do not rush to judgment, and are willing to contemplate some of his ideas over a sufficient length of time, you cannot but be richly rewarded.

Rating:
Summary: author should have hired a professional indexer
Review: The index is not usable and takes away any serious utility of this book. Was this a computer-generated or author-generated index? Bad idea on both.