Family First : Your Step-by-Step Plan for Creating a Phenomenal Family

Rating:
Summary: Basic but powerful
Review: Dr. Phil has another hit with this book. He points out weaknesses found in families and ways to overcome them. We only need to make an effort to do so. The guts to do so is the determining factor on whether our families will improve or not.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Advice
Review: Dr. Phil is a highly educated, broadly experienced, no-nonsense counselor. He cuts through the psychobabble of other similar books with a clear cut approach to self-improvement. Family First is a guide book for every family that strives for making sanity and peace out of the chaos of dysfunctional living.

Also recommended: Behavior Caoching by no-nonsense author and psychologist, Dr. Scott Hall. A great compliment and companion to Family First.

Rating:
Summary: Family First!
Review: Dr. Phil is on it again! Placing the family first is the first priority of how you should arrangue your life! I am offended by the Amazon review that states that Dr. Phil is an Oprah spin-off. Dr. Phil enjoys Oprah but he is the only Dr. Phil imaginable. Spin-off, I think not spin-off! But the book is about placing your familiy first and arranging prioritizations to make yoru family all it can become, and this is the most imortant thing I can imagine! THrough strength familys can overcome and become "phenomenonal", as Dr. Phil so eloquently phrases the statement. Why wouldn't you want this? He can help, as always, jus tlike on television with the "Straight talk" that America need, expecially in trying times of today's world with problems with terrorists, American needs strong families at home to make the world strong, and Dr. Phil can assist you. FIVE STARS!

Rating:
Summary: Important Message for a Changing World
Review: Dr. Phil's central messsage in his new book FAMILY FIRST is that nurturing our children and strengthening our families is the most important work to be done in the world today. If parents took this to heart, there will be many more happy children and well-adjusted adults. I agree with other reviewers that this book was refreshing in its relative lack of judging and demeaning language that often turns me off to Dr. Phil's television show. FAMILY FIRST offers some workable strategies to nurture your children and guide them to reach their full potential. As a parent of four, ages 14 to 24, I would have liked to see a broader awareness of the complexities of raising children in a violent world filled with injustice and duplicity. It would be refreshing to hear Dr. Phil admit that even if parents do their very best following his advice or the tenets of their religion or parenting philosophy, there are no guarantees and all parents make mistakes. Still, Dr. Phil's statement that family should come first is an important one for our time and FAMILY FIRST is worth a read.


Rating:
Summary: Better than ever
Review: Dr. Phil's style wins people over. The same winning style is present in this book. Many practical and useful examples of how to strengthen your family are put forth in each chapter. Some people disagree with him-which is fine-but you cannot argue with success. James Green, author of "If There's One Thing I've Learned."

Rating:
Summary: Willpower first
Review: I found this book very well written and thought out. There are alot of good ideas BUT I think you have to have alot of willpower to follow through. I love my family, they are not perfect and I am not perfect and we will never be. I wonder if Dr. McGraws family is perfect...anyway. If you have the willpower and motivation to change your ways or even some of them, then this book gives you great insight into what COULD work if you AND your family are willing to make changes.

Rating:
Summary: Families are complex
Review: I liked Dr. Phil's book. However, I'm not sure it meets with all the praise seen in many of these reviews. It is what it is - a very basic book for persons wanting to feel like they are doing something to improve their family. It might be helpful to some, but do not expect the miracles proclaimed in many of these reviews. I think families are very complex and dynamic. A step-by-step plan for creating a phenomenal family would look very different for each and every family. I think Family First was written by a very skilled group of ghostwriters to entertain the masses. And entertaining it is. The Dr. Phil name on the cover is just the icing for the marketing people. Suggest that you read a serious book on family and parenting along with Family First if you want to see what I'm talking about. Take a look at "Systemic Parenting: An Exploration of the Parenting Big Picture" written by a family therapist named Mark Gaskill. The differences in depth, detail, and perspective are obvious.

Rating:
Summary: Isn't his 15 Minutes Up Yet?
Review: I read this book because I wanted to find out what all of the buzz about Dr. Phil was all about, and because I thought it might actually help me and my family become closer. This has really helped me.

I am so glad to finally read a book from an author who understands emotionally unstable men. I have tried to get my boyfriend to read it with me but he never listens to me. Now with the new self confidence that I have gained from Dr. Phill's book, I am going to leave him. Through this book, Dr Phill also helped me to realize that even though my parents disowned me because of my sexual preference, they still love me deep down inside.

I want to thank the doctor for telling me about a alternative to coffee that is absolutely delicious. Its caffeine-free and comes in 8 delicious flavors. Just google it under "s oyfee" to find it. Great pleasure in reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: a "paint by number" type of book
Review: If you're a Dr. Phil fan this book is for you. No doubt. It is a "paint by number" type of book. However, after reading it I find myself thinking that families are very dynamic and sometimes complex systems - I know mine is. A simple paint by the numbers / step-by-step approach certainly falls short of being too helpful in anything but the most trivial matters of familial functioning. I enjoyed Family First and recommend it as it doesn't hurt to read. Personally I prefer greater depth than what I found in Family First. Another reviewer suggested a book "Systemic Parenting" by Mark Gaskill. I also picked up a copy of that book. These books work well together! Gaskill definitely fills the gaps left open by Phil. Actually, I think it would have been helpful to read Systemic Parenting before reading Family First - I would even suggest that many of Phil's ideas came from reading Systemic Parenting. It is certainly an, if not the, original. Gaskill's discussions on topics like intimacy, emotional safety, emotional process, thinking errors, and interactions styles probably would have positively contributed to my family's use of the questionnaires found in Family First.

Rating:
Summary: Family First and Behavior Coaching
Review: Just finished reading this and Behavior Coaching by Dr. Scott E. Hall. Family First was a gift, Behavior Coaching was for work. There seems to be a trend in parenting books toward being more practical, more helpful, and more effective.

Dr. Phil has never been a favorite of mine, but I must admit that Family First is a winner. His no-nonsense style does resonate with me, and he has all the credentials of someone who should know how to raise a family.

My son has ADHD and had been struggling all year with behavior in school. Family First and Behavior Coaching are a great combination and have helped me help my son turn around what was going to be an awful year.