The Most Perfect Parent

Miss Spider gives a lesson in good parenting to Spiderus.

From the award-winning author of THE BUBBLE BOY comes a heart-warming and unforgettable story? that follows one boy’s search for the perfect family, with surprising and unexpected results. Perfect for fans of Onjali Q. Rauf and Lisa Thompson. 'Friendship, laughter, suspense and more!' - Ross Welford, author of TIME TRAVELLING WITH A HAMSTER and THE 1000-YEAR-OLD BOY THINGS MY PERFECT PARENTS MUST HAVE: 1. A mega mansion like the ones footballers live in 2. A garage wall with a basketball hoop 3. No gerbils 4. Holidays to Disneyland All Sam wants is a family of his own, a home instead of a ‘house’ and parents he knows will still be there when he wakes up. Because Sam has been in and out of foster care his whole life and he can’t imagine ever feeling like he truly belongs. Then his best friend Leah suggests that rather than wait for a family to come to him, he should go out and find one. So begins The Perfect Parent Project ... But Sam may just discover that family has a funny way of finding you.

It's Shimmer's eighth hatchday and what better way to celebrate than with the biggest party ever? But when a thunderstorm threatens to ruin Shimmer's big day, it's up to Miss Spider and the rest of the family to chase away the birthday blues.

Parenting isn’t easy. Showing up is. Your greatest impact begins right where you are. Now the bestselling authors of The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline explain what this means over the course of childhood. “There is parenting magic in this book.”—Michael Thompson, Ph.D., co-author of the New York Times bestselling classic Raising Cain One of the very best scientific predictors for how any child turns out—in terms of happiness, academic success, leadership skills, and meaningful relationships—is whether at least one adult in their life has consistently shown up for them. In an age of scheduling demands and digital distractions, showing up for your child might sound like a tall order. But as bestselling authors Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson reassuringly explain, it doesn’t take a lot of time, energy, or money. Instead, showing up means offering a quality of presence. And it’s simple to provide once you understand the four building blocks of a child’s healthy development. Every child needs to feel what Siegel and Bryson call the Four S’s: • Safe: We can’t always insulate a child from injury or avoid doing something that leads to hurt feelings. But when we give a child a sense of safe harbor, she will be able to take the needed risks for growth and change. • Seen: Truly seeing a child means we pay attention to his emotions—both positive and negative—and strive to attune to what’s happening in his mind beneath his behavior. • Soothed: Soothing isn’t about providing a life of ease; it’s about teaching your child how to cope when life gets hard, and showing him that you’ll be there with him along the way. A soothed child knows that he’ll never have to suffer alone. • Secure: When a child knows she can count on you, time and again, to show up—when you reliably provide safety, focus on seeing her, and soothe her in times of need, she will trust in a feeling of secure attachment. And thrive! Based on the latest brain and attachment research, The Power of Showing Up shares stories, scripts, simple strategies, illustrations, and tips for honoring the Four S’s effectively in all kinds of situations—when our kids are struggling or when they are enjoying success; when we are consoling, disciplining, or arguing with them; and even when we are apologizing for the times we don’t show up for them. Demonstrating that mistakes and missteps are repairable and that it’s never too late to mend broken trust, this book is a powerful guide to cultivating your child’s healthy emotional landscape.

Following the wildly popular Vertical Marriage with the same charming, relatable dialogue between mom and dad, bestselling authors and national hosts of FamilyLife Today Dave and Ann Wilson dive headlong into the monumental task of parenting in the 21st century. Raising kids with hearts for Christ may be the hardest thing you ever try to do, but it's also the most important thing. Packed with funny and honest stories, compelling illustrations, biblical insight, and practical steps you can put into practice today, this hands-on parenting manual will encourage and equip every parent through any stage. Founders of a multi-campus church and family coaches with 30 years of experience, Dave and Ann share the hard-earned but easy-to-apply principles that ensure a strong parent-to-child relationship and a strong foundation for your child. You'll get a front-row seat to the multidimensional nature of parenting through a conversational back and forth between Mom and Dad and even comments from their adult sons on what worked, what didn't work, and why. An inspiring and resourceful guide, No Perfect Parents will cover essential topics like learning to discipline without losing your mind or causing more chaos, the parenting guilt trip, the teen years, and the top five parenting mistakes. For parents and couples preparing to have children, Dave and Ann offer hope and strategies that really work, and some that didn't. No Perfect Parents will let you into the real, even raw, struggles and joys of raising kids that can impact their generation in a powerful way. To get the legacy that you've been praying for, start here. Your kids will thank you later.

In this book, the preeminent child psychologist of our time gives us the results of his lifelong effort to determine what is most crucial in successful child-rearing. His purpose is not to give parents preset rules for raising their children, but rather to show them how to develop their own insights so that they will understand their own and their children's behavior in different situations and how to cope with it. Above all, he warns, parents must not indulge their impulse to try to create the child they would like to have, but should instead help each child fully develop into the person he or she would like to be.

If your parents need training, this smart little girl can help you get them in shape A playful new picture book about when to take control . . . and when to ask for help. Meet Mimi Lee: she has a three-step plan for training her parents to be PERFECT. It's simple, even if mom and dad don't always get the hang of it. But Mimi knows she's succeeded when her parents FINALLY let her get the new puppy she's wanted. Then the mischievous dog arrives, reversing the roles . . . and Mimi discovers that being trained is very hard work, indeed.

This book traces the growing influence of ‘neuroparenting’ in British policy and politics. Neuroparenting advocates claim that all parents require training, especially in how their baby’s brain develops. Taking issue with the claims that ‘the first years last forever’ and that infancy is a ‘critical period’ during which parents must strive ever harder to ‘stimulate’ their baby’s brain just to achieve normal development, the author offers a trenchant and incisive case against the experts who claim to know best and in favour of the privacy, intimacy and autonomy which makes family life worth living. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Sociology, Family and Intimate Life, Cultural Studies, Neuroscience, Social Policy and Child Development, as well as individuals with an interest in family policy-making.