“Kids don’t come with a manual” – Book review and giveaway

When I was pregnant I spent ages reading books about what to expect, even when H was a little baby I referred to my books to see if milestones were being hit, then it stopped!  Being drawn into the everyday treadmill of life I just persevered with behaviour traits and looked up online if I felt something wasn’t right.

However I have had the wonderful opportunity to review ‘Kids don’t come with a manual’ the essential guide to a Happy Life written by Carole and Nadim Saad, I wish I had found this book earlier. The book is a practical guide on how to balance different parenting skills and based on the latest child psychology research.   I try to keep a balance on any behaviour that might come from H and try and put myself in his shoes. I will admit that H very rarely throws a tantrum and actually does do what he is asked but the odd occasion things might get thrown in anger or blown out of proportion, this book however goes a long way to explaining behaviour and more so how my behaviour has a direct reflection on the response from H.

The good thing about this book is the contents are very clear along with the chapters so you don’t have to sit down and read the whole book if you don’t want to, you can simply pick out the chapters that you are interested in at any given time.  Thanks goodness it is written by parents for parents as you don’t get that lecturing tone which makes you feel that everything you have done has been wrong! It shows that there are different ways of parenting and how just a small change in the way you say or do something could have great results.

I absolutely love the ‘what the child may be thinking’ sections of the book, sometimes as adults we think our way is the right way but I have tried to step into H’s shoes off the back of these sections and think how and why he may be acting as he is, my reaction can sometimes make the behaviour worse!  I recall this clearly from H reacting to his Tigger teddy who had apparently been naughty and how he sent him to the naughty step, I could see in his behaviour exactly how I must come across to him and this was quite an eye opener!

If you apply just one of the tools from this book you will see great changes, or you can sit down and read all the way through and decide what areas you may want to tackle, this book is there to support you and maybe ask you to question some of your own behaviours and traits and how they rub off on your children. The final part of the book is an easy to use troubleshooting area helping with the Top 20 parenting challenges (taking too long to do anything is one of them which is a classic in our house!) along with tantrums, defiance and sibling rivalry.

Please take a look at the link to the Best of Parenting website to find the best place to get your hands on this great and informative book http://www.bestofparenting.com/books/

For a chance to win your own copy of the Kids don’t come with a manual please enter my giveaway through the Rafflecopter link below:

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