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51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, May 17, 2007
This book, I imagine, is (or will be) considered one of those modern classic parenting books. Ted Tripp draws on his vast experience as a pastor, counselor, school administrator, speaker and father to share with us his perspective on raising children. His underlying principle is that our role as a parent is to guide our children to understand themselves and the world in which they live. To do this effectively, we have to do more than just tell our children, we must lead them through open communication, self-disclosure, living out our values - shepherding their hearts. Tripp states, "The central focus of parenting is the gospel. You need to direct not simply the behavior of your children, but the attitudes of their hearts."
The book is laid out in two parts: Foundations for Biblical Childrearing (the philosophy) and Shepherding Through the Stages of Childhood (the implementation). He begins with exploring the idea that the heart determines behavior. He walks through the various influences our child development that affect what fills the heart. He then reminds parents of their place of authority. I think this is an important concept to internalize, because I increasingly see in our culture a desire to be friends with our children, rather than parents. We focus on making our children like us, and so we gloss over the difficult responsibilities like discipline.
Tripp then moves into a section on goals, and what I loved about this part is how he shifts our focus from ourselves to God. For example, rather than wanting to raise well-behaved children - because it makes us look good or because it gives us control - we want to raise children who love God so much that they want to live in obedience to Him (not us!). These and other goals he discusses may seem good, but they are not Biblical.
The last section of the first part discusses many different Biblical methods, ranging from communication to spanking. While I appreciate his discussion and agree with many of the points he makes, parents should be aware that he does express some fairly rigid beliefs. Personally, I think you should consider the personality of each of your children and apply the methods that are most effective. However, parents should not dismiss the rationale and Biblical mandates behind what he suggests just because they disagree with the method or the extent to which it is used.
The second part is intended to be a more practical implementation of his philosophy. To me, this is the weakest part of the book. I walked away from the book still unclear how to implement most of the ideas he had discussed.
Overall, the concepts in this book are great and well explained. It could stand to be a little shorter and more concise, and needs more concrete points of application. But it is definitely worth the time to read.
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300 of 367 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Practical advice from a radically different philosophy, April 11, 2003
This review is from: Shepherding a Child's Heart (Paperback)
The key thing that distinguishes Tripp's book from most parenting books is that he rightly understands that our goal in parenting is not to produce children who are obedient, nor is it to produce children who are happy. Rather, both of these are the beneficial result of raising our children in such a way that we are always addressing the issues of the heart (selfishness, rebelliousness, discontent, etc.) rather than just working on the externals.Tripp gives some very practical advice to this end: how to recognise the "teachable moments", how to spank, the problems with strategies that don't work (e.g. bargaining or bribery). He also makes it clear that discipline only works in an atmosphere of trust and communication. I was very pleasantly surprised to see someone agree with me that in a situation where you "know" your child has done something wrong, but you don't have the evidence to prove it, the right thing to do is to encourage honesty on their part, but if necessary to let them get by with it, rather than acting on a presupposition that might be wrong and injuring the trust between parent and child. He also writes a good bit about parenting goals and strategies for different age groups (from toddlerhood to teenage). The book does have its flaws, though. The most serious is that Tripp does not do a sufficient job of setting the context of what we are about in parenting. Doug Wilson's Standing on the Promises does that well, and should be viewed as a necessary companion to this book. As another reader pointed out, he also does not effectively discuss how to build attachment during the early years (although he hints at it - for instance, his insistence that the child be laid across the lap for spanking is grounded in a desire to not distance the child and he condemns parenting methods that attempt to manipulate the emotional fears of children to achieve a result). I was tempted to give the book a lower rating due to some philosophical problems with Tripp in his view of whether God promises to work through godly parenting to bring children to faith, his views of education and socialisation and so on. However, he does not work out a practice consistent with these flaws and touches on them only tangentially, so they can mostly be overlooked. He also has a tendency to be a bit absolutist about things that aren't absolutes. For instance, he sees spanking as the only effective means of punishment in discipline. He rightly understands that the purpose of spanking is to get the child's attention so that the real work of discipline (the teaching aspect) can proceed out of the infraction, but doesn't seem to understand that with some children there are more effective means of getting their attention. I'm a big fan of spanking, but have recognised in my own daughter that sometimes the removal of privileges is much more effective.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book - even those who don't spank can glean much, October 3, 2008
This review is from: Shepherding a Child's Heart (Paperback)
I first read this book while a teacher at a Christian preparatory school. It was recommended by my supervisor, the Head of Lower School. It changed the way I dealt with my students and behavior issues that arose each day. I loved learning how to focus on the heart and using different styles and types of communication, depending on the situation and heart of the child. It is challenging to sometimes figure out the root of the behavior, and even more challenging as teacher of many students, to find sufficient time to talk and communicate with each child, but well-worth the pursuit. I obviously did not use spanking as a classroom teacher, but other modes of behavior correction. Now, 8 years later, I am a mother of 2 small children and reading the book for the 3rd time. We do use controlled, biblical spanking with our children. (How does one "back up" one's words without a spanking with small children? Especially if they refuse to go to time-out? Maybe I just have stubborn kids!) Anyway, even if you have chosen not to use spanking, you can still glean very valuable content from this book regarding communication and reaching the heart of your child, as I did as a classroom teacher. We are God's instruments to teach, raise, and train our children, and I don't believe that Tedd Tripp thinks that we actually ARE God (in response to another reviewer!) This book, while not perfect (is any book?), is very worthy of your time to read. I gained much out of it, and it is helping my husband and me in our journey to raise children with God-centered hearts.
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