Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting: Five Strategies That End the Daily Battles and Get Kids to Listen the First Time

by Noel Janis-Norton

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING GUIDE TO THE 5 MUST-KNOW PARENTING STRATEGIES 

Tired of nagging, pleading, negotiating, or yelling just to get your kids to do the simple things you ask? You don’t need to be a Tiger Mom or a Helicopter Parent. There is a better way.

Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting brings the joy back into family life and helps parents to raise confident, responsible adults.

Based on her forty-plus years of experience, behavioral specialist Noël Janis-Norton outlines a clear, step-by-step plan that will help any parent raise a child to be cooperative and considerate, confident and self-reliant. Transform your family life with these five Descriptive Praise, Preparing for Success, Reflective Listening, Never Ask Twice, and Rewards and Consequences. You’ll begin to see results almost

• Kids start cooperating the first time you ask
• Mornings, bedtimes, mealtimes and homework all become easier
• Even very resistant kids start saying” yes” instead of “no”

Full of examples and stories from real parents, this book offers the complete toolkit for achieving peaceful, productive parenting. Parents who have read How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk or Positive Parenting will appreciate Noël’s battle-tested methods and easy-to-follow strategies.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Unfinished, Education

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2013

Reviews

[Susan J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hooked right away when Noël Janis-Norton listed the difficulties of parenting kids in today’s world. She described my feelings exactly particularly regarding how today’s parents don’t usually feel comfortable letting their kids roam around the neighborhood all day long from dawn till dusk. Now a lot of parents feel like they have to entertain and/or be their child’s playmate which can be stressful when you’re also cooking, cleaning, etc. Then add in screen time, and childhood seems so different from when I grew up. Her five strategies (Descriptive Praise, Preparing for Success, Reflective Listening, Never Ask Twice, and Rewards and Consequences), when implemented consistently, can help facilitate a happier relationship between parents and kids. I’ve already started Descriptive Praise (a particular way of praising your child beyond just saying “good job”) and Preparing for Success (basically, planning ahead for stressful times of the day) with my 7-year-old, and I’ve seen a positive difference in his behavior with less whining and crying. I can’t wait to move on the next strategies! Noël Janis-Norton’s writing style is very easy to follow, and her book is chockfull of examples from real parents from many different backgrounds and parenting styles.

[Michael Toleno · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short review that I wrote on Facebook at the end of 2019 for this book and Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Hubbard: "Two pretty good parenting books. I disagree with some of the authors' worldviews in places, but generally that didn't take away from their many good ideas. I probably should be employing their ideas more deliberately and consistently." Note that this is not written from an explicitly Christian or biblical perspective, but I didn't find it to be clearly contrary to Scripture. She replaces the words "obey" and "obedience" with "cooperate" and "cooperation," perhaps to avoid scaring off people who are bizarrely offended by the notion that kids should obey their parents! If you substitute "obey" for "cooperate," it will probably make more sense to most people.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and would guess every parent would pick up some useful tips. There are two parts. The first part details specific techniques to improve compliance with your kids. The second part has suggestions for typical trouble spots. Also, buy it. I’m a devoted library user but this book is set up as a reference and is designed with trial periods after each technique or trouble area to make sure you have it down and see improvement.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of the book I would rather have not had in there. And a lot of repeating the title. I felt this dragged on and I only got a little bit of take away.

I read a book just before and I had so much take away it was amazing and then to read this one with so much extra it was really disappointing. I did take away the core concepts, but I didn't need them explained so much and repeated.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of helpful advice.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gift for all baby showers. Not when they are toddler stage and during tantrums. It was dense and wonderful and I learned so very much.

[Hallie Waugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took what stuck and left what didn’t—main takeaways were that you are not your kids’ entertainment committee, and the tactic of think-throughs where the kid has the chance to preemptively internalize how they will respond in a given scenario.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I might have given it 5 stars if I had finished it (I had to return it to the library before I could get all the way through--and someone else had it on hold so I couldn't renew it--so I skimmed a lot). I first heard about it from an excerpt published somewhere like "Parents" magazine a year or two ago, and I just really like her "Never Ask Twice" approach. I'm planning to buy myself a copy so that I can read it all the way through.

[حاتم عاشور · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a WoW book in making children behave.

There are points and tips, clearly written with a lot of examples from real life.
beware, there are warnings how to achieve the points,so don't take the generalized idea, read deeply, sub points are important too.

The great thing about this book that it's a journey from life you can imagine or you are in it daily with children.

Main points, major tips, long examples, detailed sentences and conclusions.

very nice !

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same as other book. Very imformative and stuck to main idea throughout the book. Very helpful advice to help in struggle situations. Very repettitive with ideas. Descrpitive,Descripitve,Descrpitive. I guess the author is trying to write it so that you can hear it over and over to learn it as quick as you read it. That's good strategy but it gets overwhelming at times.

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great strategies and real life examples! The quality time piece cannot be understated. Just the simple effort of making time to throw the football to my middle child made a huge change in our interactions. The bonding times heal a multitude of wounds and make us both more forgiving and likable. My spiral is getting better too.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really liked the author's connection between classroom management and parenting, and I agree with the emphasis on building positive relationships. But I prefer the Faber and Mazlish books as a simpler, more direct explanation.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who doesn't want calmer, happier, and easier anything?! There was some good advice in this book, but in the end it frustrated and annoyed me as much as all the other books that try to tell you that if you just do everything it says your life will all of the sudden be perfect.

[AJ Conroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed like good advice as I was reading it, but it didn't work so well in practice.

[Fatima]

Didn't finish the book since I found it very repetitive. One can get the idea from the first couple of pages.