What Children Learn from Their Parents' Marriage: It May Be Your Marriage, but It's Your Child's Blueprint for Intimacy (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THERE IS AN OLD SAYING that goes "Children do as they see, not as they are told" I'm sure you have heard this before: If..." (more)
Key Phrases: pathological power, marriage therapy

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As we all come to realize, sooner or later, our childrens' lives speak our truth. In What Children Learn from Their Parents' Marriage, Dr. Judith Siegel throws a wonderfully clarifying light upon the specific ways in which the ordinary interchanges of the couple create their youngsters' basic blueprint for later loving and relating." -- Maggie Scarf, author of Intimate Worlds

"Dr. Judith Siegel has written a compact, elegantly simple, thoroughly useful book that all parents'and many others'will find helpful and illuminating. One of the most valuable roles a clinician can fill is that of informed messenger, taking the hard-won lessons learned from people in distress and offering them up to others, so that they might avoid the same distress. Dr. Siegel is an honest, careful and intelligent messenger." -- Edward Hallowell, M.D., co-author of Driven to Distraction

"Fear not: The numerous clinical cases illustrated here demonstrate how you can improve your children's perspective of mariltal relationships. It's never too late. All parents can benefit from this solid read." -- Nashville Parent

"Looking at marriage from the child's point of view is a valuable and essential perspective. Dr. Siegel's book is interesting and easy to read, and will be of great value to many parents." -- Donald R. Bardill, Ph.D., Editor, The Journal of Family Social Work

"This startling and significant book is truly a wake-up call for all parents today. Our children are watching!" -- -- Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families

"This startling and significant book is truly a wake-up call for all parents today. Our children are watching!" -- Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

How are your children learning about intimacy? What are they seeing when they watch you interacting with your spouse?  In a ground breaking approach to family dynamics, What Children Learn from Their Parents' Marriage shows how a child's perception of the marriage his or her parents have created is the key to his or her psychological development and ultimate well-being.

Talking to both intact families and divorcing couples with children, marriage and family therapist Judith P. Sigel identifies seven essential elements of marriage that determine the emotional health of a child.

By combining her own work with the most current research, Dr. Siegal presents an eye-opening and highly readable book -- one that offers illuminating insight for parents everywhere who wish to build the secure foundation their children need for an emotionally healthy future.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060929308
• ISBN-13: 978-0060929305
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #311,860 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Children learn what they live, March 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: What Children Learn from Their Parents' Marriage (Hardcover)

This book is excellent and really focuses on average families. What kids grown up living in their households is really a reflection on what their future goals will be as molded by their parents. It is a wonderful book to read if you are looking for a practical, easy to understand book on what you can do to make your marriage more wholesome and the reflection of that will set the pace for your children in the future and what choices they make for themselves. I highly recommend it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good marriages make healthy children, August 24, 2001

By	"ploughman7" (Bronx, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

It may not come as a shock to most parents that the lessons our children learn in childhood are carried with them throughout their lives, but what this book makes clear is how our own marriages form a blueprint from which all our children's future relationships will be built. Siegel creates a compelling narrative using lots of case histories and anecdotes, which makes this an easy read. She helps us identify not only what we are doing wrong in our marriage, but what we're doing right, which makes our foibles a lot easier to acknowledge. She also helps us to explore how deeply our own parents' marriage affected us. A very important book with a very important goal--"the opportunity to create a positive legacy of love for our children."