Rules for Parents: Simple Strategies That Help Little Kids Thrive--And You Survive

Probably the best book ever written for new parents. You won't get tired reading it because of the way it's presented. It's simply a good book to read.

I belong to a group of mothers who get together once a week to share parenting tips and experiences, and read aloud what some of the "experts" have to say. We've been experimenting with different books and styles, but this one was an instant winner! The author manages to say in a few words what other authors do in whole pages and chapters. It is never boring, and was a real sparkplug for conversations and feedback with other mothers. If you belong to any type of parenting support group, I highly reccommend using this book as a read-aloud text.

My wife and I acquired about 18 inches of books on child care when we had our first child three years ago, and I'm ready to stick them in the basement and free up some shelf space after reading this one. So much wisdom in a one inch binding! This is one of the best combinations of "predigested" expert advice from a variety of sources and author's personal perspective that I've seen in my (slightly obsessive) attempt to outwit the pitfalls of parenthood. As I moved through the book, I was able to get an affirmation of some of the practices my wife and I have followed with our firstborn, as well as some great hints for refining,improving or avoiding others. The style of the book is very conducive to your testing your own experience against the book's viewpoint ("rules" is a bit strong---this is not a dogmatic work by any stretch). Silver has a nice way of educating you without making you feel stupid, and the book moves at a nice clip. (It's also easy to pick up and put down between bottles, diaper changes and the like, since each "rule" is rarely longer than a few pages.) For that reason, this may be an even better book for those who don't read a lot of this type of subject matter than for bookworms like me.