I have never read any parenting books before but I bought this one on a recommendation (.13 on amazon)!
While I dont really believe in labeling your children (in the same way that I dont really get into labeling my parenting style) I think its really important as parents to do our best to understand our children, their personalities, their needs, wants, etc on a personal level instead of just having a "this is whats best for children" mentality. Each child is so so different and requires you to parent, respond, interact, entertain in such different ways.
For example, I hate routine. Any kind really. I find it super mundane and really prefer to drift, never quite sure what the next day holds. I hate making plans and sticking to them or being nailed down to something. However I have been realizing that this has been coming through in my parenting. Routine is super important to children and Cruz thrives on it. I had to understand that even though my son is only 2, I needed to start paying more attention to who he was and and that even if I had a preconceived notion about the way things should be, it was more important to watch him and his cues as a way to understand the best means of parenting him in particular. Its easy to file children away into certain groups like "strong willed" or "stubborn" when that may not be the case at all. I embrace that he is his own unique person but realized that I needed to put more effort and attention into understand his personality and the things that work well for it.
I am interested to see what this books hold. Do you guys read any parenting books or have any suggestions on the subject?
I am the same way...I really hate routine and even obligations. Eden is not like that at.all. I've been struggling with putting together - and sticking to - routines for her sake.
ReplyDeleteI never read many 'parenting' books (though I've read a thousand on natural childbirth and some of them go into the parenting realm), but I have read into books about the 7 different styles of learning and such which I did find really helpful. I have also read a lot on unschooling. The learning styles info and the unschooling go well together because you really need to be able to identify how your child best learns and thrives when you are not having someone else educate your child.
XO!
So my library of "parenting books" is currently taking over our house. Too bad I usually only make it half way through Chapter 1. I think that's because most of the time parenting books say stuff that sounds like common sense to me. The one book that did really give me a few "ah ha" moments and had me reading parts out loud to Kris ("oh, oh! Listen to this...." - that's not annoying at all, right?) was Alfie Kohn's "Unconditional Parenting."
ReplyDeleteI'm also a non conforming rebeller (!!) who's having to get used to the idea that my kids also thrive on a routine. Sometimes you need a routine, sometimes you need to skip routine and go to the zoo instead. Know what I mean?
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