Nurturing Good Children Now: 10 Basic Skills to Protect and Strengthen Your Child's Core Self

A trusted family psychologist identifies and then shows parents how to reinforce the ten things that will help children build a strong inner-self--mood mastery, body comfort, passion, friendliness, focus, collaboration, gratitude, clarity, peer smarts, and expressiveness.

Parents have no choice but to nurture.
There is no more important question in child rearing today than: How can we nurture children who are both good and happy? How can we help them stay safe, be respectful, and reach their full potential? This is especially crucial in a society that undermines parents--through, as Dr. Taffel calls it, a "second family" of pop culture and peers that influences children from the moment they begin walking and talking.

The answer to these challenges is not to question whether "parents really matter." Of course they do, and in the real world of day-to-day life, such hypothesizing is a luxury. Yet, a growing number of mothers and fathers have the mistaken belief that a child’s emotional and attitudinal development is beyond their control. Nurturing Good Children Now shows parents that they do matter; it outlines precisely what is important to nurture in our kids, and how to raise good children who have a deep sense of values and an enthusiastic spirit.

This is the first book that explains clearly what is happening to kids and families along with simple, yet comprehensive ways to help children of all ages become the strong individuals they deserve to be. Parents will learn to recognize that inside every child is a unique "core" that can be protected and strengthened according to a child’s specific personality and temperament. The culmination of years of research based on thousands of families, Nurturing Good Children Now identifies ten "core-builders"—the most essential traits that children need in order to thrive in today’s world: Mood Mastery, Respect, Expressiveness, Passion, Peer Smarts, Focus, Body Comfort, Caution, Team Intelligence, and Gratitude.

Each chapter elaborates on one of these core builders and explores core threats, or the ways the second family works against each core builder. It then offers corresponding parent skills that foster the development of the core-building attribute, and child skills that teach children how to reinforce their own core areas. Dr. Taffel also includes countless stories and clever acronyms that will help parents remember parenting techniques in the everyday rush of their busy lives.

Nurturing Good Children Now is a compassionate book that offers unflinching social commentary, the latest research on child development, and practical, hands-on advice. We can protect our children’s sense of integrity. We can teach them to love learning; to respect adults as well as to befriend them; to hold onto their passion; to be comfortable with their bodies; to get along with their peers without succumbing to peer pressure; and to manage their emotions. All are crucial to how they will handle the challenges of growing up—from pre-school to high school. We can nurture good children now, and, for a better future, we must.

Advance praise for Nurturing Good Children Now

"Dr. Ron Taffel offers sensible advice on how to raise good, productive kids in the turbulent nineties. He has children and it shows in the writing. He knows what it feels like to be a parent today. I recommend this book to all parents and educators who are trying to raise sane kids in a crazy culture." —Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia and In the Shelter of Each Other

"Dr. Ron Taffel is my favorite expert on getting through to kids. When it comes to wisdom and practical advice, he’s a national treasure." —Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., author of The Dance of Anger and The Mother Dance

"Parents who work at teaching the ten skills outlined here will find that they are also teaching basic values. This combination of usable skills and understood values creates kids that are both good and happy." —Linda and Richard Eyre, authors of Teaching Your Children Values and How to Talk to Your Child About Sex

"Dr. Ron Taffel has devoted his career to listening to parents and children with his heart and addressing their concerns with compassion. This book represents the best of what Taffel does best: Take the pulse of families and prescribe loving ways to protect and nurture them. Parents will find smart, practical answers to their everyday concerns as well as invaluable advice that will last a lifetime." —Ann Pleshette Murphy, editor-in-chief, Parents magazine