The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting: Candid Counsel from the Depths of the Daycare Trenches (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When your toddler's bowel movements seem more important than world peace, mealtimes require strategic negotiations, and you haven't had a night out in eight months, it's time to admit something needs to change. Let Gay Uncle Brett Berk take you by the hand and walk you down the path to parental enlightenment. With over twenty years of experience working with young children, but no kids of his own, Brett uses his expert outsider's perspective to break moms and dads out of the Parenting Bubble, an alternate universe where under-table dining, Everest-like toy piles, and hourly tantrums somehow seem "normal". Packed full of candid advice, handy checklists, and hilarious stories of parents even crazier than you, The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting reveals how consistency, patience, and keeping your emotions in check are key to overcoming almost any parenting struggle, and will help your kids gain the structure they need to develop and learn new skills, and allow you to be a person as well as a parent.

- Learn how to form a Sitter Stable, and get out of the house on a regular basis
- Read about how Lifeboating--carting around too much stuff--limits your child's development, and how you can avoid it
- Discover the magic of the EAR Method for talking to kids: Explain, Adjust, Redirect. (It really works!)
- Uncover the truth behind tantrumming, and find out how you can put out the fire instead of fanning the flames

About the Author

BRETT BERK, M.S., Ed., worked as a classroom teacher and a preschool director, and now acts as a research consultant to some of the world’s biggest producers of kids’ media, toys, and consumer products. He and his partner of eighteen years divide their time between New York City and a house in upstate New York.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307381382
• ISBN-13: 978-0307381385
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,182 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious and smart!, March 21, 2008

By	L. Dickerman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As the mother of two young children, i found brett berk's book to be an invaluable resource and an incredibly entertaining read. the advice in the book is clear, helpful, and extremely perceptive. berk has a tolerant, loving, but structured approach that calls out parents for the "bubble" that allows perfectly normal, decent people to lose all sense of self when they procreate (we've all been there! every parent, no matter how enlightened, will recognize him or herself, cringe, then laugh). berk gives specific, detailed, techniques to combat all kinds of parenting traps, and i found his advice not only more entertaining, but also consistently wiser and more useful than most books out there. on top of it all, berk is truly hilarious--the book reads like a memoir about his crazy family, long-suffering friends, and the many realistic, charming, challenging children in his life. i found the above review about how people without kids shouldn't write about how to raise kids patently absurd. just because you can pop them out, by no means do you have the "instinct" to raise them right--you may have the instinct to love them, but take my advice, read berk's book and do yourself, your friends, and especially your children, a BIG favor!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great parenting resource, April 21, 2008

By	M. Neilson "parent of two young girls" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is probably the best parenting book I've read. It's balanced, funny and, for me, serves as a good outside perspective in those moments where I'm about to pull my hair out or go down the dark tunnel of neurotic parenting. I found it helpful to hear from someone who has successfully worked hands-on with so many different children in a preschool. Somehow it felt more practical, less philosophical, and more grounded in reality than some of the books I've read that were written by doctors or parents of just one or two kids. Given that I'm doing this parenting thing for the first time and my two young girls are different from each other (Not much that worked with the first works with the second. I'm, thus, doing everything for the first time.) I found his experience very helpful. If you don't have time for the whole book, you could read just the little boxes on many of the pages and get the gist of the most important stuff.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GRATEFUL GRANDMA, May 28, 2008

By	Donna Barnett (KEY WEST, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

AS A MOTHER OF FOUR AND NOW A GRANDMOTHER, I MUST SAY, IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW. THE "GAY UNCLE'S" BOOK HAS SOME WONDERFUL TIPS ON PARENTING THAT EVERYONE CAN USE, MOTHERS, FATHERS, GRANDPARENTS, TEACHERS, AND, YES, EVEN "GAY UNCLES"...THE ONLY THING THAT UPSETS ME, IS THAT THEY DIDN'T HAVE A BOOK LIKE THIS WHEN I WAS RAISING MY CHILDREN. THE ONLY THING WE HAD AVAILABLE AT THE TIME WAS DR. SPOCK, AND THAT ENDED UP IN THE TRASH.
CUDO'S MR. BERK. GREAT BOOK.