Larry Winget is slap therapy for parents. Despite some strong differences in opinion about what I consider Godly and appropriate life-style and behavior, I still give this book a thumbs-up. It's not a difficult book and covers lots of basics. Unfortunately, it seems that "basics" aren't so much anymore, hence the real need for this book.
It's organized into 6 sections:
1- How did we get into this mess- and if you don't think we're in one, go to any public place and observe most children, most parents and most parent-child interactions.
2- The Five Basics
a. Communication
b.Involvement
c. Education
d. Discipline
e. Punishment
3-What to Teach Your Kids - 2 Biggies- Money & Sex
4- Your Teenager
5-The Short Lists - basics like: "a cell phone is a privilege" and "put the seat down"
6- The Ultimate Goal of Parenting & Other Final Thoughts.
If you aren't familiar with Larry Winget ready yourself. He is opinionated, mouthy and isn't opposed to strong language. Or sex before marriage, or a host of other, imho, questionable behaviors. He is also strongly opposed to homeschooling. That's o.k., his reasons are lame and thoroughly disproved. There's enough good stuff in this book to get over the points one won't agree with.
A couple of quotes I thought were especially notew0rthy:
"I found a survey of corporations that regularly interview globally looking for talent to hire, and one of the respondents said, "If I wanted to recruit people who are both technically skilled and culturally aware, I wouldn't even waster time looking for them on U.S. college campuses."
This is a problem. Our kids are going to be competing on a global level. And while America is still the biggest and baddest dog on the block we better wake up and realize we're not the only dog out there.
And this,
"I have another concern that isn't addressed by any of the studies I have found regarding television viewing. I believe that watching too much television has made us a nation of spectators instead of a nation of doers."
Ayup.
Flower asked on her way to a friends house 2 days ago why we don't have a gaming system, cause "all of her friends do" (she's 7 btw). And when I went to pick her up the other Mom mentioned that it was so nice for her kids to have a friend to play with who was still into Legos, cause most of their friends were into electronics. Geez.
The tag-line on the book is "A Guide for Raising Responsible, Productive Adults." Larry has lots of good things to say about creating an environment that will allow that to happen.
1 comment:
Wow, that first comment hurts. We've actually started facing this in our Christian community. There will be activities perfectly suitable for my kids, but the planners set really high age limits b/c most kids my dcs ages couldn't be well behaved during the events. It really is sad that kids are so out of control, but have you also noticed the gross ignorance in parents? Sad, sad state we're heading toward. Thanks for the review.
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