ScreamFree Parenting
Hal Runkel
Published By: WaterBrook Press
Book Category: Non-Fiction, Family & Relationships
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Reviewed by Dr. David Frisbie
Subtitled: Raising Your Kids By Keeping Your Cool
Author Hal Runkel has hit upon an imaginative way to teach parenting: by stressing the need for parents to remain emotionally composed and self-controlled. If only all parents would see this light!
Hal Runkel is a marriage and family therapist with a particular interest in raising well-behaved children. Yet instead of focusing on how to achieve behavioral control of the kids, this book attempts to change the behavior of the adults in the household.
Every kid wants a “cool” parent, Runkel advises, yet the kind of “cool” that helps most is the kind that means calm, collected, and in control of his or her emotions.
Using witty chapter titles and insightful anecdotes (you’ll enjoy the discussion about ”˜judo parenting’) Runkel essentially advises you as a parent to say what you mean–calmly–and mean what you say. He devotes a couple of chapters to the danger of threatening dire consequences without backing them up with actions, and the value of such consequences when they’re actually imposed–by a calm parent.
What’s new here is the packaging, not the theory, but Runkel’s terms and descriptions are witty and fresh. Parents of young children or parents who feel like their children are ”˜out of control’ may especially enjoy this book.
NOTE: Together with wife Lisa, Dr. David Frisbie serves as executive director of The Center for Marriage & Family Studies in Del Mar, California. They have authored numerous articles and eight books about family life,including “Raising Great Kids On Your Own,” and “Happily Remarried.”
Armchair Interviews says: Solid, mainstream parenting advice, presented with a fresh twist.
Author’s Website: http://www.ScreamFree.com