Nurturing Good Children Now: 10 Basic Skills to Protect and Strengthen Your Child's Core Self

by Ron Taffel, Melinda Blau

Overview

In these difficult, sometimes violent, times, how can we nurture children who are both good and happy? How can we help them stay safe, be respectful, and reach their full potential? Nurturing Good Children Now outlines precisely what is important to foster in our kids, and how to raise children who have a deep sense of values and an enthusiastic spirit. The most essential traits that children need to thrive in today's world are: mood mastery, expressiveness, peer smarts, body comfort, team intelligence, respect, passion, focus, caution, gratitude.

This compassionate book offers unflinching social commentary, the latest research on child development, and practical advice. We can protect our children's sense of integrity. We can teach them to love learning; to hold onto their passion; to be comfortable with their bodies; to get along with their peers without succumbing to peer pressure; and to manage their emotions. We can nurture good children now, and, for a better future, we must.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312263645
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/10/2000
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,002,973
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Dr. Ron Taffel is a noted child and family therapist and author of Parenting by Heart, Why Parents Disagree, Nurturing Good Children Now, and a guide for child professionals, Getting Through to Difficult Kids and Parents. He consults with and lectures at school, religious, and community organizations around the country. He is an award-winning contributing editor to Parents magazine and the founder of Family and Couples Treatment Services at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York City, where he lives with his wife and children.

Melinda Blau, an award-winning journalist who often specializes in parenting issues, is the author of Families Apart and Loving and Listening, as well as coauthor of several other books including Dr. Taffel's Parenting By Heart and Nurturing Good Children Now. She is the mother of two grown children and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
If your son has a hard time taking direction from anyone or working as part of a team, or your daughter seems preoccupied with popularity and obsessed with her appearance, you might benefit greatly from the insights offered in Nurturing Good Children Now. Ron Taffel, a therapist and author who lectures nationally and who has appeared on "20/20" and "Dateline," among many other shows, explains that problems such as these occur with children who don't have a strong sense of self. Without guidance, these kids will gravitate to unhealthy peer relationships and the mind-numbing influences of pop culture. As a result, parents lose influence over their children to these external threats, or "second family," as Taffel refers to them.

Nurturing Good Children Now tells parents how they can protect the hearts, bodies, minds, and souls of young children and adolescents. It offers a new way of thinking about why kids are turning at earlier and earlier ages to peers and pop culture — and why the old parenting approaches don't work. And it provides concrete strategies that will stop children from falling into the kinds of alienating and destructive patterns that so many parents and educators know and fear.

But how is it possible to protect children while still preserving the passion that makes young people vibrate with life? How can parents soothe a child's intense emotions without squelching his or her spirit? According to Dr. Taffel, the answers to these questions involve a radical shift in the way we think about and handle children as they negotiate the difficult world ofthe21st century. Adults need to step in, recognize, and nurture a child's core self — before there's trouble. The rules of parenting need to be rewritten so that children and teens can successfully reconnect with themselves.

Each chapter in Nurturing Good Children Now explains ten "core builders," explores core "threats" or ways the second family works against the core builder, and teaches "parent skills" that parents can acquire to help children genuinely develop and sustain their core selves. These chapters also explain how to know when a child's core is in jeopardy and point out "child skills" that teach children how to reinforce their own core areas. Informational boxes provide factual research, helpful hints, checklists, and exercises throughout.

No matter what age, children can get into trouble when they lack guidance. But parents can help ensure that their child's core develops in positive instead of negative ways. Nurtuting Good Children Now will help parents raise resilient children who are equipped to succeed in an increasingly more demanding, competitive, and diverse world.