The Parent's Answer Book: Over 101 Most-Asked Questions About Your Child's Well-Being

Rating:
Summary: This book is SO useful.
Review: As a parent of one beautiful boy, I don't have much experience raising children. This book has helped me through what may seem like the most basic issues with grace. I am in debt to you Drs. Deskin and Steckler. My wife and I are better parents because of your book. Thanks.

Rating:
Summary: I WOULDN'T PARENT WITHOUT THIS BOOK
Review: I would not even think of parenting without the valuable advice in this book. Every question is one I've had, every answer is right on point AND WORKS! I've tried most of them and my very energetic, (my ex says "difficult" - I say "spirited" and knows what he wants) child has responded to every single word given in this magnificent answer book. As a guide it is absolutely indispensible. Literally every question I've ever had has been answered within minutes of picking up this book. I can't even sell it, it is so dog-eared, written in, dirty from being cooked over - yes I do all the cooking! And I believe it even has baby pee on it. GET IT! Especially if this is your first. I repeat GET THIS BOOK!!!

Rating:
Summary: I WOULDN'T PARENT WITHOUT THIS BOOK
Review: I would not even think of parenting without the valuable advice in this book. Every question is one I've had, every answer is right on point AND WORKS! I've tried most of them and my very energetic, (my ex says "difficult" - I say "spirited" and knows what he wants) child has responded to every single word given in this magnificent answer book. As a guide it is absolutely indispensible. Literally every question I've ever had has been answered within minutes of picking up this book. I can't even sell it, it is so dog-eared, written in, dirty from being cooked over - yes I do all the cooking! And I believe it even has baby pee on it. GET IT! Especially if this is your first. I repeat GET THIS BOOK!!!

Rating:
Summary: toeing the party line on "gayness"
Review: This is a book that seems to want to appeal to a wide spectrum of American families. As such, many of the recommendations and opinions are phrased in ways that are ambiguous or plainly obvious. It's time, however, that authors who wish to appeal to the American family realize that the liberal party line on homosexuality is not among the values that need to be included in such a book, and that it is more important to help children than for the authors to guard their reputations in the often wrong-thinking intellectual community.The section on homosexuality in this book is particularly offensive, in that it seems to matter-of-factly accept that society's new nonjudgmental attitude about gays increasingly allows for normally confused adolescents to actualy OPT for gayness if it seems appealing. Using terms like "opt" and "commitment" to describe this adolescent period merely underlines the authors'--and many of their fellow therapists'--unwillingness to even present an opinion that homosexualty may not be a healthy, or desirable, thing for parents to encourage in their children. Presenting the subject in such a one-sided, noncritical way is exactly what causes society to send out messages that such "experimentation" is nothing to avoid.In paying lip-service to a question that most normal families would still want to ask--"Can You Prevent Homosexuality?"--the authors answer in the prescribed, approved fashion (anything otherwise would attract complaints from the "right-thinking" in the medical and academic communities and might actually make a publisher afraid to include the section in a book): "Historically and at present so many creative people are homosexual that we should be extremely careful in tampering with nature." We should assume, it appears, that because this special elite of "creative" people are gay, then gay must be good. And we must also assume--even though the authors have also explained that homosexuality may be either genetic OR environmental in cause--that to discourage or want to prevent such a supposed creativity-inducing state in our children is against nature, and should not be allowed. Contrast this approach with the authors' espousal, elsewhere in the book, that parents NOT accept a problem like dislexia--yet, the authors clearly state that this is a genetic problem, period. For dislexia, it seems, it is okay to tamper with nature (even though that there are many "creative" people who are dislexic!): parents are allowed to want to do something about this, and should seek out "professionals...for assistance...who are equipped to help your child.... It is important for parents...to inform themselves of special programs...that might help the child." And under "Prevention" and "Recommendations," the authors clearly have no trouble in calling for helping the child overcome this problem through "early intervention": "The problem may not continue to be a problem if you get help for your child now." But then again, there are probably not thousands of highly-placed, arts-and-media-influential groups ready to destroy your career if you criticize the dislexic lifestyle. The tone of the whole entry is summed up by the last line about seeking help if the idea of child homosexuality causes parents pain. Like the public-relations term "homophobia," This seems to suggest (though like much of the book this sentence is worded vaguely and can, pardon the expression, go both ways) that rather than confronting the problem in a critical way that may help a child lead a more healthy life, it is the parents who need counseling if they're upset over a child's homosexual problems!