Friday Favorite: Positive Discipline A-Z

September 19, 2008

I can’t remember if I already wrote about this, but Positive Discipline A-Z by Jane Nelsen is my favorite parenting book.  I so often feel like I’m totally wingin’ it as a parent, so my goal is simply to parent my children the way God parents me.  And the phrase I use to sum that up is “freedom within boundaries.”  While not explicitly Christian, Nelsen’s book does the best job of capturing the concept in my opinion.

The “discipline” in the title here refers not to punishment, but to “teaching” and “guiding” as in, from the same word we get the word “disciple.”  Nelsen has written several books, but this is my favorite because it offers very practical advice.  Got a kid who whines?  Turn to page 295 where you’ll find a brief explanation of what might be behind it, a numbered list of suggestions for helping your child stop, another list of suggestions for preventing it in the first place, life skills the child can learn and a few parenting pointers.  Tired of your children fighting?  Turn to page 131.  Naptime struggles?  Page 177.  You get the idea.  I love that.  So many parenting books I’ve read leave me asking, “Yes, I get that there are things that need to change, but HOW exactly do I change them?”

I could go on and on about how this book might challenge some of your long-held beliefs about parenting as it did mine (time-outs for example), but that would take a long time and I hear the baby in the other room ready to start his day.

If you’re interested in what she has to say but don’t want to spend your hard-earned cash to buy the book just yet, take a look at her website (especially this page) to get a feel for her approach.

What’s your favorite book of the week?

Related posts:

1. Friday Favorite: Elbert’s Bad Word
2. Favorite parenting advice
3. Train up a child: 10 things
4. What to do with a perfectionistic child?
5. Friday Favorite: A Chocolate Bar (How It’s Made)

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