Overall, I'm glad I read it, as it is a thought-provoking read that ultimately made a better parent just by grappling with the issues it presents.
Here is what I liked about it:
Kohn emphasizes teaching empathy, teaching kids about the effects their behavior will have on OTHER people, not just on themselves; teaching kids to behave because it's the right thing to do, not out of fear of punishment or desire for reward. This is an extremely important and useful concept that many parenting books neglect.
I think many of his observations about "conditional" parenting are spot on, and things I remember painfully from my own childhood.
Everything he says is well-documented, not just his own spouting opinion. I think he is especially brave to take on race, religion and culture when he makes his assertions. I find his information about self-esteem to be particularly relevant.
I like that he allows hardworking parents to cut themselves a slice of slack. The world is not going to come to a crashing halt if your child sees you fumble. I have a three-year-old, and his advice about three-year-olds is helpful in the practical sense. There truly ARE many times when I feel like yelling at my child, "Are you dense?!" only to have Kohn's words echo back at me, "I'm not dense! I'm THREE!" A lot of this information is reassuring and helps me to be more calm and patient.
Finally, he advises parents to take his own advice with a grain of salt, something most parenting gurus won't do. He acknowledges that there are times when your child needs a bath or you need to get out of the house by a certain time and you will have to impose your will on the child and there isn't a way around that. He acknowledges that sometimes a thought experiment is just a thought experiment. I appreciate that kind of honesty.
What I didn't like:
Kohn jumps to conclusions a lot and misses some important details. For example, he says that a creative, empathetic child is better than an obedient child. Well, you know, in the long run, sure, I want my child to be creative and self-reliant and not be a "yes-child" who bows to every authority. But when she was two, I had a terrible time teaching her to walk on the side of the street instead of in the middle (no sidewalks in our neighborhood). It took many tries of picking her up and carrying her home kicking and screaming before she learned to obey me. The point is, sometimes there ARE times when you just plain want your child to obey, and when obedience is a necessary, reasonable goal in the situation. The younger the child, the more true this is, but a child of any age needs to have SOME respect for authority. Maybe not total blind obedience, but some level of acknowledgment that there are people who know more than he does whom he might just benefit from listening to.
And any parent can tell you there are some times when your kid is just plain being bratty, and you as the parent have to make him toe the line. I'm not a huge fan of time-out or punishment in general, but there are times when it IS called for, and it is not love withdrawal. Or if it is, then maybe that's what's needed to get the kid to stop being obnoxious! I feel particularly strongly about natural consequences. Kohn claims that what your child will remember is not the lesson, but that you could have helped and didn't. Well, maybe. But I'm sure all of us who had halfway decent parents will remember some times in our childhood when our parents did things we didn't like at the time, but now that we're grown, we're glad for the lessons we learned from them. My dad taught me to play the trumpet, standing behind me with his hands around my waist, making me push out his hands breathing with my diaphragm. I would never have developed good musicianship if he hadn't done that. My husband's mother used to make him cook meals from scratch AND clean up after himself. We wouldn't be as healthy if she hadn't done that. Sometimes parents have to do things that their kids are going to find jerky, or at least not helpful, at the time, but nevertheless it's necessary to do it anyway. It all depends on the individual parents and children and the situation--it's not something you can make a blanket statement about (at least not an accurate blanket statement).
I totally disagree with Kohn that being polite ("please" and "thank you") for its own sake is pointless, and most certainly will encourage a child to use those words, even if she's not old enough to talk yet and I have to say them for her. I do agree with him that the point is to make the other person feel good, not to get what you yourself want, so I won't force the issue.
Finally, I think that all of Kohn's advice on the whole carried out to its logical extreme is just impossible. It would result in mass scale brattiness that would undo all the creativity and empathy that might go along with it.
My conclusions:
I think it's best for a person to have medium self-esteem. I want my daughter to feel like a good and capable person without having an overinflated ego. I do praise her when she has done something genuinely impressive, when I think she really HAS done a good job; I would praise any friend or relative of any age in that instance. I do NOT praise her as positive reinforcement to get her to do it again, nor do I pile on empty praise to inflate her ego. I try to help her see how her actions, good and bad, affect others; but when she really is being obnoxious, I have no qualms about either letting the chips fall where they may (natural consequences) or removing either herself or myself from the situation (punishment, albeit mild punishment; "love withdrawal"). I tell her I love her even when I'm angry, but that doesn't stop me from letting her know that what she did was wrong.
I'm glad I read this book and I recommend it to anyone who can read it with an open, critical mind and find what makes sense and what applies and what doesn't.
By the way, I know some young adults who were raised this way. They did indeed "turn out well" as far as being creative and empathetic; they're nice people. But they're not doing so well on the "go-to-work-every-day-and-hold-down-a-job-in-order-to-pay-their-own-bills" front. I don't know if this is a phase they will outgrow or if maybe a little more discipline when they were younger might have helped move them along a bit.
