Beyond Good Parenting

Getting children to behave seems to frequently cost us intimacy and enjoyment in being with them. Beyond Good Parenting addresses this issue by describing both children's and parent's behavior in down-to-earth/recognizable terms for any reader, and explains seemingly confounding behavior by integrating relevant knowledge from psychology, evolutionary biology, and the latest in findings in neuroscience with real-world situations. Challenging outdated beliefs about behavior and teaching,...
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Getting children to behave seems to frequently cost us intimacy and enjoyment in being with them. Beyond Good Parenting addresses this issue by describing both children's and parent's behavior in down-to-earth/recognizable terms for any reader, and explains seemingly confounding behavior by integrating relevant knowledge from psychology, evolutionary biology, and the latest in findings in neuroscience with real-world situations. Challenging outdated beliefs about behavior and teaching, it asserts that an accepting and trusting relationship between parents and children keeps the door open for children to absorb huge amounts of cognitive knowledge and to engage in valuable, creative activity. Adopting a role of providing access to the rich learning opportunities around them offers more than the cultural view that good parents need be good teachers. Children are "born to learn" and need only security, opportunity, and a context in which exploration and experimentation can occur as frequently and as safely as possible. Parents can learn to provide that kind of environment much more easily, with more enjoyment and less frustration, than by adopting a teaching role. Furthermore, as parents accomplish their own goals, they become valuable resources for their children rather than monitors, judges, and enforcers.