Parenting Your Powerful Child: Bringing an End to the Everyday Battles

by Kevin Leman

Overview

Powerful kids don't just happen. They're created. Whether loud and temperamental, quiet and sensitive, or stubborn and manipulative, powerful children can make living with them a challenge. But it doesn't have to be that way. All children need to face the realities of life, and the best place for them to do so is in the safe place of their home.

For all the parents out there at their wits' end, New York Times bestselling author Dr. Kevin Leman offers a fail-safe action plan for redirecting power surges into positive traits that will prepare the powerful child for a successful, happy, productive adult life. Parents will learn how powerful children are created, what makes them tick, what makes them explode, and what they can do to change the power plays . . . for the good of the entire family. All it takes is determination, persistence, willpower, and advice that works—guaranteed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800723668
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dr. Kevin Leman is an internationally known psychologist, radio and television personality, and speaker who has taught and entertained audiences worldwide with his wit and commonsense psychology. He has made house calls through hundreds of radio and television programs, such as Fox & Friends, Fox's The Morning Show, Today, The 700 Club, CBS's The Early Show, James Robison's Life Today, In the Market with Janet Parshall, CNN's American Morning, and Focus on the Family, and has served as a contributing family psychologist to Good Morning America. A bestselling and award-winning author, Dr. Leman has written more than fifty books about marriage and family issues, including The Birth Order Book, Making Children Mind without Losing Yours, and Have a New Kid by Friday. Dr. Leman and his wife, Sande, live in Tucson, Arizona. They have five children and four grandchildren.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 11

Introduction: Is Your Kid Powering Up? 13

It's time to take the buzzard by the beak

1 The Anatomy of a Powerful Child 19

Powerful kids don't just happen; they're created

2 Power Comes in Different Packages 33

Your personal power source is right under, your nose … and she's workin' ya

3 The Loud, Aggressive, Temperamental, Curveball Manipulator 47

This powerful child is easy to spot-you can hear him from across the yard. So can your elderly neighbors

4 The Quiet, Shy, Sensitive, Walk-on-Eggshells Manipulator 59

You may not recognize this child as powerful, but she quietly holds all the cards … until you decide to play your hand differently

5 The Stubborn, Procrastinating Manipulator 67

This child has a powerful MO and a very good rationale for it

6 What Do Genes Have to Do with It? 77

Check out the personalities in the nursery, and you can predict what each kid will be like in 5, 10, 15 years

7 What Does Environment Have to Do with It? 89

All children develop a screenplay on life-and how they fit in- from 18 months on

8 Raising Attila the Hun 105

Why parents unwittingly create powerful children … and what you can do about it

9 Why Kids Misbehave 125

Don't let those cherublike faces fool you. Your smart kids have goals

10 The Attention-Getting Kid 137

What you can do differently to ratchet down your (and their) stress

11 Power-Driven or Determined? 151

How to know the difference and what you can do to successfully maneuver the power surges in your home

12 You're the Adult, They're the Children 167

That powerful child has everything to do with you, your background, and your views of parenting

13 What Kind of Kid Do You Want? 181

Win-win suggestions to get you from where you are to where you want to be

14 Grace-Based Parenting 201

For the prodigal in your life

15 Rewiring Your Home 213

What you used to say, and what you'll say now that you know all of your child's strategies

16 Redirecting the Power Surge 235

How to encourage positive goals and show your kids that they can use their drive for power for a good purpose

Conclusion: You Can Do It! 253

Don't forget the fun. The family that plays together stays together

Top 10 Power Points 259

Notes 261

About Dr. Kevin Leman 263

Resources Dr. Kevin Leman 265

Editorial Reviews

Popular family expert Leman explains how children of all ages exercise more power than is good for them by underachieving, complaining, aggressively misbehaving, or withdrawing and being passive. With familiar-sounding examples, he offers techniques for resisting these manipulations and helping children learn mature ways to get what they need. The frequent focus on winning these battles gives the book an adversarial tone that may appeal to beleaguered parents but obscures the broader wisdom in this otherwise helpful guide. Maurice England’s performance is a faithful, easy-to-hear rendering of these ideas and a fairly consistent expression of Leman’s compassion for parents and children. But when the confidence in his splendid voice turns to certitude, some of the author’s thoughtfulness becomes lost and his more aggressive tactics begin to sound heavy-handed. T.W. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2013 - AudioFile