Raising Children Who Think for Themselves - Softcover

Medhus M.D., Elisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582700478 ISBN 13: 9781582700472

Publisher: Beyond Words, 2001

Synopsis

Raising Children Who Think for Themselves offers a new approach to parenting that has the power to reverse the trend of external direction in our children and help parents bring up empathetic, self-confident, moral, independent thinkers. Children who are externally directed make decisions based on the peer groups, violent movies, sexually explicit television shows, and rap lyrics that permeate their lives. When children are self-directed, on the other hand, they use their power of reason like a sword to cut through the jungle of external influences. Fortunately, the author shows us, it is never too late to foster in our children the ability to weigh options, consider sources, and think for themselves.

Filled with real-life examples, humorous anecdotes, and countless interviews with parents, children, and teachers, Raising Children Who Think for Themselves

• Identifies the five essential qualities of self-directed children
• Outlines the seven strategies necessary for parents to develop these qualities in their children
• Addresses nearly one hundred child-raising challenges—from body piercing to whining wars—and offers solutions to help encourage self-direction

About this title

Review:

"Raising Children Who Think for Themselves provides plenty of sensible, down-to-earth advice for parents. A goldmine of suggestions and guidance."
—Thomas W. Phelan, PhD, author of 1-2-3 Magic

"Rich stories and examples from her own parenting experiences and those of her patients make Medhus's book a comprehensive guide for teaching our children to become honest, intuitive, and independent thinkers, using not only their heads but their hearts."
—Jeanne Elium, coauthor of Raisin a Son and Raising a Daughter

Synopsis:

RAISING CHILDREN WHO THINK FOR THEMSELVES is a prescriptive parenting book with many qualities that give it a broad appeal. It reveals the one force tipping the scales of society towards the dead-end and perilous road of moral decay: We are taught to govern ourselves through external influences rather than through our inner voice of reason. In other words, we are externally directed instead of internally directed, and sadly we raise our children to be the same. Fortunately, it is never too late to address this problem: a child of any age will benefit when they learn how to follow their own inspiration and rely on their intuition. RAISING CHILDREN WHO THINK FOR THEMSELVES first reveals the special qualities common to all self-inspired children, then describes the details surrounding its central theme, explaining the crucial differences between internal and external direction. The core of the book illustrates the seven key strategies necessary to raise self-inspired children, including using empathy training and teaching children how to handle different external influences in a self-inspired way.

With many humorous anecdotes and examples, RAISING CHILDREN WHO THINK FOR THEMSELVES is written in a casual style to reach as many parents as possible. Quotes from interviews with children and easy-to-read bulleted text appear throughout. There is also a special section covering around one hundred behaviour problems with solutions that are self-directed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Beyond Words
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1582700478
• ISBN 13: 9781582700472
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304