Customer Reviews: Read 161 more reviews...
 just OK September 5, 2008
I thought this book was just OK. Much of the information was good and I will use it in our home. However, the examples they used in this book were outrageous. Who in this day and age is going to let their kid off to walk home. Also, allowing a child to determine whether they go to school or not is silly.
 This book is in line with recent studies September 3, 2008
For the people reviewing this book who think it is cruel to children, or might lead to a drop in self-esteem, I suggest reading a study by a Dr. Dweck. It did a study on praising children, and the gist of the study is that children respond better to being told they are hard workers than being told they're smart. How does this relate to the book? Instead of constantly coddling your child, Love and Logic encourages you to put your confidence in their abilities, implying that you think they can work through their problems. This is great for self-esteem! Taking responsibility for yourself is a huge confidence builder (take it from someone whose mom was still making Dr. appointments for her at 21). Everyone fails. Letting your children make small mistakes ,and believe me, being cold all day because you didn't want to bring your coat is a SMALL mistake, helps them see that they can deal with the consequences of their failures/mistakes, making them more willing to try things. And for those who think Love and Logic doesn't offer good advice about parenting, keep in mind that this is a book about disciplining children. It specifically states in Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood to make sure your children enjoy being with you so that sending them to their rooms seems like a punishment. It also says to set a responsible example and take care of yourself, but that's about the extent of their off-disciplinarian parenting advice. It doesn't make it a bad book, just like you wouldn't consider a history text incomplete for not having math in it. I thought it was a great book and have had much success with it, as has my sister who introduced me to it. I recommend it to anyone I see struggling with their children.
One of the best parenting books July 16, 2008
My family is getting ready to adopt a special needs child and they were told to purchase this book along with the Martian Child movie. We purchased both of these items and they are very good to help in the thought processes behind a special needs child. The book shows a completely different way in bringing up children versus the old fashioned way. We have not finished the book yet but we are darn sure it is going to help.
 Would have damaged my child for life - dangerous book June 20, 2008
4 out of 12 found this review helpful
One of the co-authors of this book (Foster Cline, M.D.) is the psychiatrist whose "attachment therapy" resulted in deaths and torture of children. (See "Advocates for Children in Therapy" at http://www.childrenintherapy.org/.) My child -- now 20 and an honors student adored by family and friends -- had oppositional and destructive behavior with tantrums. My husband and I followed advice similar to that in this book, culminating when our son became suicidal at age 8. At that point my husband and I looked at each other with the simultaneous unspoken thought: "We can't keep treating him this way." We instead relied on our own sense of how far to go. Later, when I read, "The Explosive Child" by Ross Green, I said to myself, "This man has written a book describing how we decided to raise our son!" It was such a relief to read, "The Explosive Child." Our change in approach paid off -- and the medications finally were tweaked correctly, and guess what: his behavior changed overnight from awful to excellent. It wasn't that he didn't WANT to behave like others: it was that he COULDN'T. As soon as the medications allowed him to control his behavior and distorted perceptions, all the good parenting and modeling we had done kicked in immediately. "Love and Logic" is based on the belief that natural consequences are all that's needed -- but if your child has a brain disorder that causes a distorted view of what's happening, the consequences you would have to resort to would be torture.
It's MUCH MUCH better to understand the disorder and how it is distorting your child's thoughts and perceptions, and get it treated by a board-certified child psychiatrist. Also, read, "The Explosive Child." (By the way, our son has not taken any medications in three years. The medications bought him time to mature enough to be able to make use of cognitive-behavioral techniques to control his anxiety. I also think the medications may have allowed his brain to develop normally so that eventually he didn't need them.)
Came highly recommended and llived up to it June 17, 2008
There are a ton of "parenting" books available but this one is helping me a great deal. Good illustrations and easy to read; the logic makes sense and the love is there.
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