Parenting Without Fear

"Dr. Donahue's calm, reasoned approach will help moms and dads sort out their concerns so they can stop worrying about the future and enjoy their rapidly changing kids — now." --Thomas. W. Phelan, author, 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children The ‘perfect parenting' expectations imposed on you by the media, society, your family, and your community can seem impossible to live up to and only make you more fearful and anxious. Paul Donahue, Ph.D. has uncovered the six most common fears that prevent you from being the effective, loving, and successful parent you want to be: -The Fear of Letting Go -The Fear of Not Doing Enough -The Fear of Taking Charge -The Fear of Slowing Down -The Fear of Unstructured Time -The Fear of Falling Behind Parenting Without Fear gives you the tools to confront your fears, rethink your goals and teach your children how to be independent, to persevere, to cooperate and respect adults, to be mindful, to imagine and explore their world, and to develop compassion for others. Discover how to gain the confidence to trust your own judgment, and the courage to make choices about your children's academic, social and athletic lives that reflect your family's values and balance your needs with theirs. "Dr. Donahue has masterfully identifies the key fears faced by many parents as they confront the challenges of raising children in today's world and he does so with warmth, humor, and empathy. This book will serve as an invaluable resource for parents." --Robert Brooks, Ph.D., co-author, Raising Resilient Children and The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence and Personal Strength in Your Life "This book provides welcome reassurance to parents who worry they are not doing everything they can for their kids." --Nancy Samalin, M.S., author of Loving without Spoiling and 100 Timeless Tips for Raising Terrific Kids

We mistrust our relational nature -- A first lesson for Louis: The fork in the road -- Lewis's experience is the message: Presumed innocence frees us to receive it -- EMDR: The window that reveals an emotional code -- PTSD is the tip of our emotional iceberg -- The phantom child experience and our corrupted database of emtional expectancy -- Decontaminating identity: It's not "Who are you?", It's "Where and when is your attention attuned"? -- What you do does not define who you are: Where and when you stand does define what you do (and staying clear about all of this enables parenting without fear) -- Daydreaming, phantom experience, and wakefulness: It's not all just you -- Wakeful mindbodynet navigation -- The first step of wakeful mindbodynet navigation: Noticing -- The second step of wakeful mindbodynet navigation: Factual accepting -- The third step of wakeful mindbodynet navigation: Receiving the message -- The last step of wakeful mindbodynet navigation: Attuning to wakefulness by programming and using the Mindbodynet Positioning System (MPS) -- Parenting with shamefear and without it: Examples with Susan -- The freedom of feeling your true competence: Faith in the GoL Program and embracing the junior partner role as you parent -- Optimal parental empowerment: The balance of nutrelational powers and necessary helpfulness -- Parenting without (shame)fear: What you'd tend to do and what you wouldn't.

The author believes that every child's greatest emotional need is to have a strong emotional bond with at least one adult. When we have a bond with a child we have influence with a child. The author teaches us that when we strengthen our parent-child bond we meet the child's need for connection and our need for influence.--From back cover.

A Powerful Approach to Bringing God's Grace to Kids Did you know that the way we deal (or don't deal) with our kids' misbehavior shapes their beliefs about themselves, the world, and God? Therefore it's vital to connect with their hearts--not just their minds--amid the daily behavior battles. With warmth and grace, Jim and Lynne Jackson, founders of Connected Families, offer four tried-and-true keys to handling any behavioral issues with love, truth, and authority. You will learn practical ways to communicate messages of grace and truth, how to discipline in a way that motivates your child, and how to keep your relationship strong, not antagonistic. Discipline is more than just a short-term attempt to modify your child's actions--it's a long-term investment to help them build faith, wisdom, and character for life. When you discover a better path to discipline, you'll find a more well-behaved--and well-believed--kid.

Digital technology has changed the parenting territory dramatically in recent years. Suddenly we've been tasked with preparing kids to be safe, happy and successful, not just in the real world, but in the online world as well. Martine Oglethorpe is part of a new breed of parenting educator who nimbly stays abreast of technology changes while keeping one foot firmly grounded in the timeless ways that make families strong.Martine skilfully combines her professional expertise with the lived experience gained by guiding her own children down the pathway to being skilled, savvy digital citizens. In these pages lies the blueprint for parenting kids in the digital age. It shares how to be engaged in the digital lives of our children without being overbearing or burdensome; to know when to tread lightly as a parent and when care and caution need to be taken.

"It might be the most important book about being a parent that you will ever read." —Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World "Brooks's own personal experience provides the narrative thrust for the book — she writes unflinchingly about her own experience.... Readers who want to know what happened to Brooks will keep reading to learn how the case against her proceeds, but it's Brooks's questions about why mothers are so judgmental and competitive that give the book its heft." —NPR One morning, Kim Brooks made a split-second decision to leave her four-year old son in the car while she ran into a store. What happened would consume the next several years of her life and spur her to investigate the broader role America’s culture of fear plays in parenthood. In Small Animals, Brooks asks, Of all the emotions inherent in parenting, is there any more universal or profound than fear? Why have our notions of what it means to be a good parent changed so radically? In what ways do these changes impact the lives of parents, children, and the structure of society at large? And what, in the end, does the rise of fearful parenting tell us about ourselves? Fueled by urgency and the emotional intensity of Brooks’s own story, Small Animals is a riveting examination of the ways our culture of competitive, anxious, and judgmental parenting has profoundly altered the experiences of parents and children. In her signature style—by turns funny, penetrating, and always illuminating—which has dazzled millions of fans and been called "striking" by New York Times Book Review and "beautiful" by the National Book Critics Circle, Brooks offers a provocative, compelling portrait of parenthood in America and calls us to examine what we most value in our relationships with our children and one another.

Messages from the media and pressures from peers all seem to conspire against raising children with strong Christian values. As kids grow older the potential for things to go wrong just seems to multiply. How can parents nurture their families with confidence, without the fear that they are making some big mistake? Tim Stafford sets you free from worrying about the Joneses or anyone else. He shows you how to build core Christian values into your children in a way that fits who God made your family to be, unique and different from every other family. In this practical and freeing book, you'll find: Why your family doesn't have to be like other families How to build core values into your children that will last a lifetime How you can find the patterns that fit who you and your family are Ways to build family life that kids enjoy and that parents find satisfying Why there's more than one, good, right way to be a family How to build grace and freedom into your family life while still providing structure and security Release from the fear that you are parenting the wrong way Stafford identifies thirteen core biblical values and describes a wide variety of ways to build these into families. He explores the many options that are available for parents to help their children develop in truthfulness, contentment, hard work, joy, rest, forgiveness and putting God first. Some books suggest there is only one right way to parent, no matter who you are. In Never Mind the Joneses Stafford frees you to explore the ways God has provided that fit your family best.