Positive Discipline for Preschoolers: For Their Early Years--Raising Children Who Are Responsible, Respectful, and Resourceful

This book has brought about an amazing change in our parenting and the happiness of our household. Not only did it give us more tools in our "arsenal" for dealing with challenging behavior on the part our preschooler, but it has completely explained why he does that behavior. From the moment we started reading the book, our parenting was transformed for the better. My husband never likes books in this genre, but he's reading it as compulsively as I am. It's a great read, and, just like really good fiction, you don't want to put it down!!

When my first daughter was born in May of 2006, my husband and I agreed we wanted to find a discipline method that fit our style, actually worked, and was easy to understand and put in place. Enter Positive Discipline. Positive Discipline for Preschoolers was the first PD book I read. I'd just finished reading about the 1-2-3 method and had been giving that a go for a few weeks with no real success and, frankly, a whole lot of mixed feelings about the process. So when I read the back of the PD for Preschoolers book, I was excited and yet a bit dubious....it sounded too good to be true and therefore it probably was. But I bought it anyway. That was several months ago and we haven't looked back since. I LOVE the positive discipline method. I am living and breathing proof that it does work. The day after I finished reading the book, we completely stopped all punitive time outs and any other punitive measures we'd been (unsuccessfully) using on our almost three-year old daughter. And we began applying the PD techniques found in the book. Honestly, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of our family and we actually began to enjoy spending time with our daughter again. My daughter's behaviour literally improved overnight. And my husband and I felt we'd finally found a disciplinary method we could happily stick with for the foreseeable future. Some folks have mentioned this book doesn't provide enough explanation about exactly what to do in various situations. I didn't have that problem but if you do, I highly recommend picking up the PD from A to Z book (which delves into specific solutions to specific discipline problems) and the original Positive Discipline book to get an even deeper understanding of what positive discipline is really all about. For those of you who are still in doubt, a quick anecdote: My husband is Irish. We went to visit the in-laws in February of this year. We spent a lot of time with my husband's four brothers and their respective families. Almost all my daughters' cousins are within the 0-6 age bracket so we had a chance to see a variety of discipline issues and parenting styles. I had a lot of questions from the various in-laws about the discipline method we used with Maia. It apparently made a positive impression because the day after we returned home, I went online to discover three emails from two brother-in-laws and my mother-in-law asking for more info about PD, how it worked, where they could buy the books, etc. Bottom line, PD works. It'll make you feel better and more competent in your role as a parent and it'll go a long way towards ensuring you have a positive, stable relationship with your child.

Great book - All I want is to be a good parent - and this books helps me accomplish the goal.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this book has the best information I've ever read and believe me I've read a lot! I've spent the last 20 years reading every book and magazine article I came across on parenting skills and child development. This book has given me such insightful information I truly feel I'm a different parent than I was before. A previous review stated that there wasn't any information about dealing with a three-year-old that hits. There is an entire section addressing aggression in the book. It starts on page 105 and goes through 113. On page 110 it specifically talks about hitting. The entire book addresses principles, child development and parenting skills that would address this issue. I'm so much more patient now that I understand where my three-year-old daughter is coming from and the techniques and suggestions in the book are working like a charm. Understanding the different personality types in reference to children and adults has taken away a lot of my fears that "I've done something wrong." "Why is she slow to join in the activity?" "What should I have done differently." While there certainly are things that parents need to be conscious of when raising their children, understanding that we need to accept them for who they are is one of the most important lessons we can learn. The examples in the book of situations we all face as parents was interesting and realistic. I will forever be grateful for finding this book and am recommending it to all my friends.

This whole series of parenting books are extremely helpful. Sure, every once in a while you say to yourself, "this is just commonsense," but what makes these books great is that they give so many true to life examples with ideas about how to respond. Even the most patient of us sometimes snaps at our children, but these books teach you how to formulate productive ways to deal with tough situations. If you've ever experienced a supermarket temper tantrum, you'll need to order this overnight mail to find out how to cope. Every day care center in the country should make this required reading.