The Parenting Backpack

Book excerpt: If you want to raise children who are confident, secure, responsible, and able to navigate the challenges of today's world, you'll want to master the tools presented in The Parenting Backpack. During her years of working with families while raising one of her own, Susie Garlick has identified surefire strategies that bring order and logic to parenting. Drawing on research and personal experience, she brings a common-sense approach that empowers parents to confidently guide their children through all stages of growth. The Parenting Backpack differs from other parenting books in that it first focuses on parental reaction to children's behaviors and asks the reader to identify the sources of those reactions, which are often a result of their own upbringing. Susie Garlick provides strategies to help parents change their reactions in a way that benefits their child's social and emotional growth. When we change our reactions, we change everything. THE PARENTING BACKPACK WILL HELP YOU: Identify your own parenting style Gain insight into the ways parental reaction affects children's behavior Reduce your anxiety, anger and frustration Ease daily tensions and deliver guidance in a nurturing way Connect with your child while setting clear and consistent limits Bypass power struggles and build trust The Parenting Backpack is an essential resource for parents. This book reminds us that parenting is not about raising perfect children. Rather, it is about how we react to our imperfect ones in ways that help our children become respectful, responsible, confident, secure, high-achieving, and emotionally healthy human beings.