Customer Reviews

Time-Out for Parents: A Compassionate Approach to Parenting

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have quite a few of Cheri Huber's books and really love them. I was really looking forward to getting this book when I found out I was pregnant, so perhaps my expectations were too high, and I am familiar enough with Huber's basic message for it too feel like, well regurgitation is too strong and negative a word. But I felt like, oh, this again, I've already read this. I wish the book would have had more stories about actual parents, what their frustrations were, and how Huber's 'method' worked for them, what it resulted in, not so much to have solutions to copy, but to help illustrate the principle more. I liked the format of Huber's other books better, wish that this one was a little longer and meatier.

But! I'm not a parent yet, I will have to reread it when its 3 am and I am exhausted and the baby is screaming and I'm feeling really bad, then maybe my review would be drastically different!

UPDATE!!

I now have 2 kids and recently reread this book. Lack of meatiness is good, i don't have time for too many words. I still would like more personal stories. One of the pleasures of parenting is sharing stories. The basic message of the book is good. I never knew how incredibly angry I could get until I had kids.

This book made so much sense and although I think I have been fairly sane and loving mother to my 3 year old, using what I learnt in this book has just made both our lives so much easier. It works!

My husband is interested in Zen and he bought this book for us to read. I feel like if I could actually implement its wisdom, I would be a very good parent. In the meantime, I keep it by my bedside and re-read it from time to time to help me remember the important things, especially when I'm losing it with my kids. Huber suggests when we're at the end of our ropes to remember how much we wanted our child before he or she was born, how innocent she was, and how much we love them. So when my son hurled a spatula across the kitchen at dinner tonight, I thought of that. It didn't stop me from wanting to scream with frustration (this was the 23rd time he'd freaked out in about 5 minutes) but it helped.

I love this book and go back to it often when I find myself having a lot of conflict with my son. The message is simple enough that it's easy to remember and implement- if you find yourself struggling with your kids, take a look inside yourself and see what could be contributing to it on your end. Fix that, and most of the time the problem melts away. It's not the solution for every problem, but I can definitely say that whenever I find myself really getting into it with my son, if I take I step back I can see I'm tired, hungry, or burnt out.

A must read for anyone who's interested in compassionate, gentle parenting.

I took off one star for the goofy font. Makes it harder to read. I don't think anyone over the age of 12 should publish things in handwriting-style fonts.

This was a great little book! I really enjoyed reading it, and will definately implement the suggestions in it.