Avery
I went through a few phases while reading this book. I initially picked it up because the title resonated strongly with me and I'd seen it mentioned a few times.
After the first few chapters, I started wondering if the title was the best part of the book. A lot of the examples felt like truisms and ideas that sounded good, but were hard to put into practice. It felt hard to see where the author was drawing the line, and sometimes the advice felt plain contradictory. The "would you say this to an adult" gut check frequently fails, with examples like "narrate the conflict as if you were a sportscaster".
Two thirds in, I started to see some patterns that made sense. I feel like in some ways, it does the message a disservice to try and sum up the approach so neatly in the early chapters. Once you've read enough examples, maybe then it makes sense.
I started wondering if this book's advice was just appealing because it went along roughly with what I thought was important in my own parenting. Is it just confirmation bias? I decided that it's alright for parents to seek some confirmation that it's all gonna be ok, and read reminders of the things we care about.
I read the last couple of chapters pretty quickly -- they got a bit repetitive and the "letter to the author" format started feeling like an advertisement for the approach (which, I already agreed with? I mean I just read the book..)
Anyway, would recommend to parents of small children looking for examples on how to gently but effectively navigate their stubborn little minds.
I went through a few phases while reading this book. I initially picked it up because the title resonated strongly with me and I'd seen it mentioned a few times.
After the first few chapters, I started wondering if the title was the best part of the book. A lot of the examples felt like truisms and ideas that sounded good, but were hard to put into practice. It felt hard to see where the author was drawing the line, and sometimes the advice felt plain contradictory. The "would you say this to an adult" gut check frequently fails, with examples like "narrate the conflict as if you were a sportscaster".
Two thirds in, I started to see some patterns that made sense. I feel like in some ways, it does the message a disservice to try and sum up the approach so neatly in the early chapters. Once you've read enough examples, maybe then it makes sense.
I started wondering if this book's advice was just appealing because it went along roughly with what I thought was important in my own parenting. Is it just confirmation bias? I decided that it's alright for parents to seek some confirmation that it's all gonna be ok, and read reminders of the things we care about.
I read the last couple of chapters pretty quickly -- they got a bit repetitive and the "letter to the author" format started feeling like an advertisement for the approach (which, I already agreed with? I mean I just read the book..)
Anyway, would recommend to parents of small children looking for examples on how to gently but effectively navigate their stubborn little minds.