Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic
Written by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
Narrated by Abby Craden
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Including real life stories, this newly revised third edition of the award-winning bestseller—voted one of the top twenty parenting books—provides parents with the most up-to-date research, effective discipline tips, and practical strategies for raising spirited children.
Do you ever wonder why your child acts the way he or she does? Are you at a loss regarding your child’s emotional intelligence and how to prevent meltdowns? Do you find yourself getting frustrated and feeling like you’re at the end of your rope?
You are not alone! Many parents are dealing with the same challenges.
In Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition, parenting expert Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D, offers ALL parents a glimpse into what makes their children behave the way they do. Through vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint, this invaluable guide offers parents emotional support and proven strategies for handling the toughest times. Dr. Kurcinka has devised a plan for success with a simple, four-step program that will help you discover the power of positive—rather than negative—labels, understand your child's and your own temperamental traits, cope with tantrums and blowups when they do occur, develop strategies for handling mealtimes, bedtimes, holidays, school, and many other situations.
In this third revised edition, you will find:
- More practical strategies to help you manage your own intensity (keep your cool)
- Effective discipline tips—including how to win cooperation and establish clear expectations and limits
- New strategies for managing the meltdowns—including how to prevent them in the future
- Revised tips for helping your spirited child fall asleep and stay asleep
- Revised tips for finding the school that “fits” your child
- Ideas for working with your child when he or she does not want to talk about emotions
- Steps to teaching your child how to be “problem solvers,” work well with others, and be more flexible
- … and more!
Including charts and quick tips for today’s time-challenged parents, this newly updated edition of Raising Your Spirited Child will help you foster a supportive, encouraging, and loving environment for your children.
Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized lecturer and parent educator. Her books Raising Your Spirited Child, Raising Your Spirited Baby, Raising Your Spirited Child Workbook, Kids, Parents and Power Struggles and Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep? have been translated into more than twenty languages. A former director of one of Minnesota's largest Early Childhood Family Education programs, Mary is the founder of the Spirited Child and Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles workshops. She resides in Bozeman, Montana, with her husband.
More audiobooks from Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
Raising Your Spirited Baby: A Breakthrough Guide to Thriving When Your Baby Is More...Alert and Intense and Struggles to Sleep Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition
Related audiobooks
Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline: The 7 Basic Skills for Turning Conflict into Cooperation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Positive Parenting: An Essential Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loving Your Child Is Not Enough: Positive Discipline That Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raising the Challenging Child: How To Minimize Meltdowns, Reduce Conflict and Increase Cooperation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brain-Body Parenting: How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being at Your Best When Your Kids Are at Their Worst: Practical Compassion in Parenting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time to Parent: Organizing Your Life to Bring Out the Best in Your Child and You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parenting Without Power Struggles: Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids While Staying Cool, Calm, and Connected Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Teaching Kids to Be Kind: A Guide to Raising Compassionate and Caring Children Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How to Say it, and When to Listen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Preschool Clues: Raising Smart, Inspired, and Engaged Kids in a Screen-Filled World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oh Crap! I have a Toddler: Tackling These Crazy Awesome Years—No Time Outs Needed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Highly Sensitive Parent: Be Brilliant in Your Role, Even When the World Overwhelms You Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extraordinary Parenting: The Essential Guide to Parenting and Educating at Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parenting: Develop A Whole Brain Child With Love, Logic & The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emotionally Healthy Child: Helping Children Calm, Center, and Make Smarter Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous and Independent Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The No-Cry Discipline Solution: Gentle Ways to Encourage Good Behavior Without Whining, Tantrums, and Tears Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Relationships For You
I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Moms Are Not Alright: Inside America's New Parenting Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You’re Not the Only One F*cking Up: Breaking the Endless Cycle of Dating Mistakes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/58 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love, Revised Edition: Relationship Repair in a Flash Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundaries in Marriage: Understanding the Choices That Make or Break Loving Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grow Up: Becoming the Parent Your Kids Deserve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: The Feels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Marriages Succeed or Fail: And How You Can Make Yours Last Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxiously Attached: How to Become Empowered and Secure in Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition
26 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As the mother of a three-year-old "spunky" son, this book helped me understand more where my son is "coming from" in terms of his personality and why he is the way he is. Acceptance is a huge factor is not losing my own sanity, because spunky and spirited kids are often mis-labeled as troublemakers, ADHD, and so on.However, I wish this book had more organization. For instance, sections for younger children and then older children would make it more easy to navigate; instead, I waded through anecdotes and information about teens that I am not necessarily concerned about at this moment.My biggest concern with this book is that it does not offer much in the way of helpful tips in dealing with/communicating with spirited children. It's more of an explanation of why spirited children are the way they are and how their brains work. Which is all well and good, but after I have a layer of background information I would like some tips on how to, for instance, help my child navigate the world more effectively.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you're the parent of a "spirited" child (sometimes also known as "difficult"), this book may help you find the solutions to your parenting nightmare that you've been searching for.Like most books of this type, the tone is breezy and conversational, as the author attempts to talk the frazzled, desperate parent down from the ledge and invite him or her in for a conversation on how to keep from going crazy in the future. But don't let the easy tone fool you: there's plenty of concrete, specific advice about parenting a spirited child here, backed up by solid research and years of practical experience.Some of the book's strengths:- There's a useful discussion of the distinction between ADHD and spirited behavior (esp. in regard to "distractibility") in Ch. 3 and elsewhere.- The advice on "Letting go of the dream child" (in Ch. 4) is also quite useful, and is the only place I've seen this important subject addressed so frankly.- The discussion of adaptability is very useful for distinguishing between willful disobedience and a genuine need for more transition time (e.g., more warning).The book's weaknesses are relatively minor:- Some of the cultural references are dated (1970s & 80s), and there's some cultural location marking as well -- midwest usages like "pop" for soda or cola, or the phrase "a scuzzy word" for a curse-word, for example. These can be a little distracting, but don't detract much from the content.- The research isn't up to top academic standards--citing what others have said about Jung's work on personality types, for example, without ever going back to the original source (Jung). But then, this book doesn't pretend to be a rigorous academic study.- Like most (all?) books of this type, there's a fair amount of repetition, as concepts get restated in various ways and forms (examples drawn from the author's own family, stories from parents in parenting classes, tables and questionnaires, research cited, etc.). This seems endemic to the genre, and in any case it's easy enough to skim a section if you feel you've already mastered the concept or gotten the message.Conclusion:As a practical guidebook for parents of "spirited" children, this book is a good choice. It is both accessible, encouraging, informative--and most importantly--full of useful and effective advice. I would recommend it in conjunction with a book from the Positive Discipline series. Though there is some overlap between these books, repetition of some key concepts and strategies isn't necessarily a bad thing, and there's enough that's unique to each approach to make reading them both worthwhile.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An excellent book describing children who are intense, perceptive, and sensitive, with ways of helping them cope when life overwhelms them. For any parents with young or pre-teen children, even if they don't think their children fall into this category. Lots of good advice.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book helped me to look at my child in a different way. I've learned so much about him and myself! I wish I had read it when he was a toddler. This is the best parenting book I've read so far.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5there are so much info that i have to reread and do some notes.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A good book for suggestions on how to avoid temper tantrums and other bad behavior in children who fall on the "spirited" end of the spectrum.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely wonderful even if you don’t have a spirited child, but especially if you do. I found it to be helpful in understanding my children, the children I care for and even the adults in my life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thought that Mary Sheedy Kurcinka's book "Raising your Spirited Child" was pretty informative. It has good information about how kids who are high spirited are different than others and different approaches that can be taken with discipline.I didn't get a ton of new ideas out of it because many of the tips and techniques are similar to those recommended for parenting children who have experienced trauma. However, there were a few new (to me) ideas sprinkled in.