Radical Parenting: Seven Steps to a Functional Family in a Dysfunctional World

by Brad Blanton

Radical Parenting brings together the revolutionary ideas in psychotherapist Brad Blanton's other books - Radical Honesty, Practicing Radical Honesty and Honest to God (with Neale Donald Walsch). The honesty and openness of the author himself about his own children is combined with the wisdom gleaned from years of work with people suffering from how they were raised.

This book does no less than create an entirely new blueprint for parenting. It's for people who really want to transcend the limitations of the family and culture in which they were raised. It is based on decades of work with thousands of individuals and families, as well as the most recent scientific research on brain physiology, biochemistry, cognitive theory, evolutionary theory, cultural anthropology, and psychological growth and development. The goal of this book is to show parents how to parent consciously, so they can prevent crippling their children in the same ways they were crippled in their own families and schools. It goes into intricate detail about how human minds get built, how they function, and how they malfunction. It gives practical examples of what to attend to with children from the beginning of their life, and how to be with them as they grow. And it rants eloquently against the cultural limitations that make us blind to how we re-create suffering, so we can nurture our children in a way that allows them to remain playful and curious all the way into adulthood.

Genres: Parenting

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book absolutely did not live up to the recommendation I saw for it somewhere…probably an internet list. I kept waiting for something to make sense, or lay out the author’s premise or lesson, and it never happened. Meanwhile, I was immediately put off by the first chapter description of the author’s five children – only one of which he seemed to have either known about or gotten/stayed married long enough to fully parent – and the author’s blithe wording about “at 17 my girlfriend got pregnant” as though it were an immaculate conception. (This child given up for adoption, and not met by author until many years later.) In other words, I couldn’t see the author had much credibility re parenting (at least demonstrated over a long haul) and never could find his point(s). Also, though he referred many times to having a PhD, that just left me wondering how lax the awarding institution was. I see on the book jacket the author is better known for a prior book “Radical Honesty”, maybe he was just trying to follow up with something else without thinking it through too well.

[Carla · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG this book totally wrecked me! If you have kids or are going to have kids don't read this unless you are either really tough or impervious to guilt.

[Enrico]

it's for reseaaaaarch.....!! :-|

[Bruce Mulkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite parenting book . . . and I've read a lot of them. My favorite line from Radical Parenting:

"Now I can tell you plainly: This is a training manual about how to raise heretics."