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Our church celebrates the Christian family, rather than Mother’s Day. We have several children who have lost their mothers due to illness, or like myself, who do not have a good relationship with their mothers.
We had three different people discuss parenting and how their faith affects it. The first person talked about all the different parenting books that are available on Amazon.com and he mentioned some names, so I decided to look some of them up.
I went to Amazon.com and did a search on parenting. There are 47,231 books available on parenting. And that’s just the books. This does not include videos, DVDs, toys and games, magazines, etc. Where do you start?
When I tried to narrow it down, it comes back with 9,479 books on parenting and families. From there you can narrow it down to 558 books on special needs parenting. That’s still a lot to try to choose from. Within those, it breaks down to 137 on disabilities and 101 on hyperactivity, the rest are listed as “general”. Are there general special needs?
Included in the general section are numerous books on ADHD, Autism, Down’s Syndrome, various learning disabilities, and other physical disabilities.
Many of the books were ones I expected, or had at least heard of, but there were a few that were “new” to me and piqued my curiosity.
“Parenting an Abused Child” by Kip Thomas“Living Alongside a Child’s Recovery: Therapeutic Parenting With Traumatized Children (Delivering Recovery)” by Billy Pughe and Terry Philpot
“A Special Kind of Love: For Those Who Love Children With Special Needs” by Susan Titus Osborn and Janet Lynn Mitchell
“Take the Fight Out of Food: How to Prevent and Solve Your Child’s Eating Problems” by Donna Fish
“When You Worry About the Child You Love” by Edward M. Hallowell
“The Maltreated Child: Finding What Lurks Beneath” by Steven G. Gray
“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Parenting a Teenager” by Kate Kelly
I have heard of Steven Gray as an attachment therapist, so I am quite interested in reading his book.
All of these books, titles, and subjects brings me to another question. If there are this many books, on this many topics, by this many authors, how can we be expected to parent these “damaged” children without help? I don’t have time to spend reading all these books to figure out how to handle each child, and I’m sure you don’t either. I wish I did, because I’m sure that they contain valuable information, but this is reality. It would take a year and a half to read the books on special needs if you read a full book every day.
I have several books in the spare bedroom that I want to read. One of them is “Parenting from the Inside Out” by Dan Siegel and Mary Hartzell. I have heard wonderful things about this book, and the speaker. I know several parents who have read it, and Sammy’s attachment therapist recommended it as well. I just don’t know when to find the time.
What are your favorite books, and when do you find the time to read them?
I read constantly, In the tub, in the bathroom, before bed.
One book I’ve read was The Boy who was Raised as a Dog.
It’s not a parenting book, but a book by a therapist who GETS it. He understands! I loved how he didn’t chide a foster mother for hugging and holding an abused 7 year old child, but instead, he understood what was going on and how she knew what she was doing.
I do not like Dobson however or To Train a child.
I do not understand why people insist on hitting children, and why I am wrong for thinking there has got to be a better way. I’m not a parent yet, but When I lived with my mother she’d employ the belt, and I really don’t feel it did me any good at all and instead contributed to my social phobia, but I cannot understand the folks who say they were spanked and turned out ok. I wonder if they are really OK, or if it’s something they do not think about
sorry to ramble so much…
Adopting the Hurt child was very good. Now I’m reading Sear’s Baby book. I like what he has to say for the most part…
Adopting the Hurt Child and the newer Parenting the Hurt Child (both by Greg Keck and Regina Kupecky of the Attachment & Bonding Center of Ohio) are exceptional!
I agree with the above posting in regard to Dobson. His attachment to the current administration leads us back to “Who Would Jesus Bomb?” His thoughts about parenting have damaged enough families and children already.