Raising Happy Kids: Over 100 Tips for Parents and Teachers

Raising Happy Kids is a book that espouses conventional wisdom about democratic parenting. It measures whether or not something is effective with kids by whether it will increase self-esteem, self-confidence and self-reliance. It speaks in favor of parents retaining their parental role and providing boundaries for their children. It also is in favor of helping kids get their needs met. Where this book departs from Empowerment Parenting is that it basically says that parents' needs are more important than the child's and that parents sometimes must exert their will over their child's simply because they are in charge and they are the parents. Many parents operate under this assumption. What Empowerment Parenting says is that every person, parents and children alike, must get their needs met in some way. If parents decide that their needs are more important than their child's in a certain situation and impose their will, then that child's need goes unmet. This sets up opportunity for all kinds of problematic behavior to occur simply because the child is attempting to get their needs met in that situation. Occasionally, parents will need to impose their will particularly when a child's safety is at risk. Sometimes parents will choose to make their needs more important when they are pressed for time. This will most likely be all right as long as it doesn't become a regular routine. However, parents must be prepared to manage the fall out. Raising children is one of the hardest jobs you will ever undertake and there is no instruction manual. We just do the best we can. Working together with your children so you can both get what you need in a responsible way is the primary message of Empowerment Parenting. It will take more time and require more patience, but the reward of cooperative children far outweighs the effort.