Good Families Don't Just Happen: What We Learned from Raising Our 10 Sons and How It Can Work for You [Paperback]

Cathy Garcia-Prats (Author), Catherine Musco Garcia-Prats (Author), Joseph A. Garcia-Prats (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155850804X
• ISBN-13: 978-1558508040
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,092,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and practical book, full of valuable ideas., December 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Families Don't Just Happen: What We Learned from Raising Our 10 Sons and How It Can Work for You (Paperback)

What a wonderful book! So many good, useful ideas for would-be parents that I would recommend this book as a prerequisite reading to anyone who intends to become a responsible and loving parent. This book really gives you a detailed account of this family's life. But they do not stop there. By showing you how they live, they clearly show you what are the values behind the way they live. For instance, they show you that they prefer to spend their time in their children's lives than watch TV. Hence, the reading time with each of their children that is something valued and important in the Garcia-Prats family.

This book is fabulous to me because I really believe that, with the application of most of the good ideas of this book, any willing couple can create a successful, loving and happy family, no matter the number of children they decide to have. So many good ideas that I decided, after having read this book once, to read a chapter regularly to inspire myself on applying the really good ideas for my future family. A small regret. There is no picture of the parents. I know, it is not the most important but they are the ones who created this happy family.

Thanks, Catherine and Joseph Garcia-Prats for your wonderful book.

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good advice, but not what I really need, November 9, 2000

By 

Joan "joan2742" (Edgewater, MD, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Families Don't Just Happen: What We Learned from Raising Our 10 Sons and How It Can Work for You (Paperback)

Now that I've seen all the rave reviews of this book, I feel a bit bad about saying anything negative about it :-). I can certainly understand what people see in this book- the authors do indeed give some very important principles for raising kids, and they back up their words with some definite success stories!

However, I really think this book might be more powerful if it weren't so careful to avoid controversy. In other words, most of the principles found in the book can be found in other books on child rearing- be an example yourself, respect the child, be positive, read to the kid... the bulk of the book is taken up with this sort of advice which, while certainly true and valid, has been abundantly covered in other sources.

To be frank, when I picked up the book I was hoping it would discuss at length how to keep kids protected (but not overprotected!) from the popular culture. While television and "appropriate" movie choices are covered very briefly, the serious but touchy problems of influencing book and music choices aren't. What do the Garcia-Prats do? How do they/will they handle problems with computers, including internet and video games? Another vitally important issue that is not adequately covered is sexuality- with ten boys, it's an issue they must grapple with at some length. How???

This book takes a remarkably sunny view of the outside culture, considering it was published in '97. Problems with bad schools (e.g. condom pushing and other sex ed woes) are not discussed, though cooperation with the schools and teachers is. The Garcia-Prats seem to have access to a couple of good schools; any advice for those who do not? What about problems with bad or unsuitable friends? Similarly, books and reading are presented as universal goods, without addressing the obvious problem that many books for adults, and even some for teens, are pornographic, easily available at the library, and innocuous in appearance.

So as a conclusion, I'll say that while this book is a fairly solid contribution for the general populace, it will not be a complete resource for the parent who wants Christian guidance about some of the worst trends going on in our country today.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An up lifting, advice filled book that is a joy to read., July 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Families Don't Just Happen: What We Learned from Raising Our 10 Sons and How It Can Work for You (Paperback)

Being a new mom time is very valuable....reading this book is worth missing a few hours of sleep. it actually has me wanting a bigger family and knowing I can do it.