When a Hug Won't Fix the Hurt : Walking Your Child Through Crisis [Paperback]

Karen Dockrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

Few things make a parent or caregiver feel more helpless than seeing the child or teenager they love in emotional or physical pain. Such helpless feelings belie reality, though; adults can do a lot to help a child--and themselves--cope with suffering. This book includes insights into a child's thinking and offers practical, biblical ways to demonstrate your love.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karen Dockrey has written over 28 books and has been working with and writing for youth for over 26 years. She has two daughters who have both faced severe crises. She lives with her family near Nashville, Tennessee.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: New Hope Publishers (AL) (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563094959
• ISBN-13: 978-1563094958
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,640,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Carry this with you to the hospital!, March 29, 2001

By 

K. Smith (Ft. Worth, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When a Hug Won't Fix the Hurt : Walking Your Child Through Crisis (Paperback)

This is an incredible, "must have" book for helping a child cope with a serious, chronic, or terminal illness. It is written by Christian youth minister, Karen Dockrey, who shares the wisdom gained through one daughter's bout with leukemia, and another daughter's life with hearing loss.

Ms. Dockrey gives specific "plans of action" for dealing with your grief and anger, letting friends help with household and parenting chores, parenting your ill child, dealing with your child's school, and very importantly, how to deal with the numerous hospital stays and procedures (including how to help your child deal with chemotherapy and/or other pain and suffering). She also advises those who wish to help a family in need, such as how and where to offer help.

This book is definitely Christian in nature, filled with scripture references to support every facet of one's struggle with an "uncommon" child. I especially cherish the chapter "Walk on Through Anger." Ms. Dockrey offers very concrete frameworks for coping with the crippling emotions of grief, anger, and jealousy. She gives the reader tender assurances of God's love and presence in the midst of tragedy. There are also the words to help a child come to terms with his or her own death; which later helped my children cope with the sudden death of their 13-year-old cousin.

This book had fallen out-of-print, and was returned in this newer edition because of popular demand by readers like myself. My own copy of this book is four years old, well-loved, and filled with yellow highlighting and a list of scripture references in the end papers. It is in my bag whenever my daughter and I are at the hospital, for the procedures she needs for congenital kidney problems. The wisdom in this book has sustained all of our family through many difficult times.

If you have, or are near to, a child with a chronic or terminal illness, I promise this book will ease your life in some way.