Customer Reviews

What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today's Challenges With Wisdom and Heart

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I am a therapist who has worked with parents for more than 40 years, and I am delighted to add this to the excellent parenting books that I recommend to parents. Haffner shies away from none of the critical issues, yet her research and tone are both rational and reassuring. This is an excellent complement to her previous fine works (from Diapers to Dating, and Beyond the Big Talk.) I recommend it most highly.

Debra Haffner is as accessible in writing as she is in person. She takes a lot of the fear out of examining all the "buzz" stories we are bombarded with daily as parents. I found this book to be both practical and full of perspective, especially for parents of teenagers... however I would recommend it to parents of children of all ages as part of their parenting library.

This is an excellent, practical, reassuring book for parents. Being a parent today can cause a lot of anxiety, and parents understandably worry about doing the best thing for their children. Debra Haffner offers solid, practical advice. She doesn't catastrophize about the state of the world but helps parents understand the challenges their children face. She shows how parents can lovingly guide their children and help keep them safe. This is very solid advice, and I am recommending this book to all the parents I know.

Debra has done it again. This book is thoughtful, insightful and interesting, offering new research-based information about what parents are confronting today. As someone who facilitates parenting groups I found her six tools for "Affirming Parenting" very useful and practical. I will incorporate them into my future workshops. This is a wonderful book to add to your collection of parenting resources whether you are a parent. a library, a mental health professional, school personnel or anyone who in involved with families.

What does every 21st Century parent needs to know about parenting? Apparently, according to Debra Haffner, an expert in parenting education, the contexts may change, but the contours of parenting remain the same. Dismissing the popular notion that contemporary parenting is more difficult and more stressful than before, Haffner points readers toward the timeless wisdom necessary for all parenting eras. While she describes some new challenges of the 21st Century environment, like technology, social networks, stress levels, and many techniques to deal with them, what is most valuable is her emphasis on the spiritual development of children. This is something not commonly found in parenting texts.

Medical specialists approach parenting from a physiological standpoint. Psychologists apply therapeutic methods. Management gurus tend to advocate techniques such as time management and the need to have balanced approaches. Not Haffner. She writes not only as an educator but as a concerned parent. In a very holistic manner, she argues for affirmative parenting style as the preferred approach, in contrast to the authoritarian, the permissive or the uninvolved styles. Along with the affirmative style, she brings in the need for parents to be strategically involved in the child's spiritual growth.

Chapter 10 is worth the price of the book, where she introduces a fresh look at how to influence the child's spiritual development with the model of the Mensch, or spiritual modeling. While I do not share all of her theological beliefs, there is still much to learn from her book. In a nutshell, the way forward in 21st Century parenting is to help the child discover his or her calling. Through faith and belief, the child will then be able to grow and deal with the ups and downs of life. I suppose even parents can benefit by applying this to themselves.

conrade

Debra Haffner's newest book does a very nice job of weaving scientific evidence with personal experience. It's a very readable book that offers practical advice for every 21st-century parent.

Aptly titled, this book offers thoughtful reassurance and guidance to parents as we navigate parenting's joys and challenges. Haffner's discussion is realistic, well-organized and addresses issues that parents today must deal with to help our children grow into emotionally healthy adults. As both a parent, and a consultant and educator to schools and organizations that provide services for children, I found "What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know" to be refreshing and right on target.