HOW TO BE THE PARENT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE

The authors have written and recorded before about parenting, and it’s hard not to respond to their optimism and energy as they talk about how to handle difficult children. The focus is on difficulty, not pathology, so what they talk about are things like excessive arguing, entitlement, maintaining order, and keeping one’s own emotional balance when in battle. The authors act out many parent-child dialogues and, for many ears, these scenes will be too lengthy and annoying to serve their purpose. But the central ideas about parenting challenges make the program worthwhile, as long as one doesn’t expect a detailed guide or anything beyond the handling of a normally difficult child. T.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]