Natural Family Living: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Parenting

I have given this book to many expectant mothers and young families. All have thanked me over and over. I find the presentation very balanced. For instance, they don't say - "Don't vaccinate," but rather, "here's the data on vaccination - you decide." Throughout the book, it invites the reader to use his/her own sense and own values to determine the best outcome for child and parents. Who wants a set of somebody else's rules? Not this generation! It covers a wide range of information up into the teen years if I remember correctly. Schooling choices, etc. DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

This is a truly great book which offers an alternative to the 'mainstream' parenting ideas of letting babies "cry it out". Other parents, health professionals and friends all told me that I must let my baby cry himself to sleep. I couldn't do it. This book has given me the theory and ideas behind my own instincts and has made me excited and enthusiastic about parenting. I will be reading this book for years. I have lent it to all my friends. This book takes some of the best ideas about parenting, sleep, discipline, feeding and raising a family that I have seen and puts them all into one easy to read and wonderful book. You won't regret purchasing this book if you believe in the rights of your child and the importance of parenting well!

I really enjoyed this book. It is a thorough introduction to "Natural Parenting" [which encompasses to some degree "Attachment Parenting"]. While I don't necessarily agree with everything in this book [Personally, I disagree with the stance against vaccinating], I found the book very useful and have continued to refer back to it over the months that I've owned it. It covers a broad range of topics [everything from pregnancy and circumcision to raising children with healthy sexual identies and positive teenagers] and I imagine I'll be using it for years to come. It has the best chapter on circumcision that I've ever read. I've already loaned it to a couple of friends who were trying to make a decision about circumcision - and both decided not to. This whole book would be useful to anyone who would like to raise healthy, happy children in a more natural way than our current "pop parenting" society would have it. I think this book would be a welcome addition to any parenting library.

I truly hope this wonderful book crosses over into the "main-stream" of Parenting because collectively we are ready to reclaim what is ours.As mothers and as parents we can now understand that our first instincts to mother and nurture our children are critical to the development of a healthy and funcrtional family-- despite what the our current conventions teach us. How liberating it is for me as a woman and a mother of two to know that what she feels deep in her heart is really what is supposed to be there. Love, support, compassion, and the endless capacity to give which is inherrant in our maternal natures.This book gives us the power to integrate what we know to be right. The authors of this book simply reinforce what we already know deep in our own beings: trust what nature does--its only natural. From reclaiming our right to a natural, drug freee childbirth to sparing our sons the cruel physical deformation know as circumscion to consturctive discipline which takes into consideration what the child really needs to grow and evovle and become a healthy person. Its ALL in this book.This book is VERY very readable, I could barely put it down. It is a must have for any family and would make a perfect gift for any mother, at any stage of her life.You can't go wrong with this book, even if you don't agree with 100% of what it says, it will broaden your perspective and open your mind to new ideas which are not so much new but in fact time-tested.This book contains true pearls of wisom and most importantly it is pratical and real. And its about time.

If you're a parent or planning on becoming one, you need this book. The chapter on positive discipline is worth the price alone. Then there's the chapter on alternative treatments for common childhood ailments--a godsend during cold and flu season--healthy eating for the whole family, wholesome family entertainment (full of projects to do with your kids)... I have yet to find a parenting book so comprehensive and so reassuring.