Parenting on the Go: Birth to Six, A to Z

by David Elkind

Essential parenting advice from one of today's leading psychologists, at your fingertips.

What is the most treasured resource for families with young children? Time. Between keeping house, shopping, doing chores, and getting everyone to work and school -- let alone fitting in family meals, fun activities, and much-needed downtime -- being a parent can require major feats of scheduling. While parents don't always have hours to pore over parenting books, they could use short, to-the-point advice on the challenges they confront every day.

Now, for today's busy families, child-development expert and bestselling author David Elkind offers Parenting on the an authoritative, accessible guide for parents of infants and young children. Elkind has long been praised for his timely, resonant responses to key child-rearing issues. Here, with characteristic insight and comforting sensibility, he offers practical answers to more than 100 common parenting questions, on topics from A to Z,

Attention Deficit Disorders
Back-to-School Blues
Child-Proofing the Computer
Empathy in Children
Homework
Manners and Morals
Only Children
Sibling Rivalry
Time-Outs
and much more.

Praise for David Elkind

"The Power of Play should be considered one of the primers for good parenting." -- Chicago Parent

"[O]ffers excellent perspectives on children, parents, and culture . . . this powerful book is essential reading." -- Library Journal on The Hurried Child

"Elkind . . . is a child-study specialist of eminent common sense . . . whom parents would do well to heed." -- Publishers Weekly

Genres: Parenting

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2014

About the author

David Elkind is an American child psychologist and author. His groundbreaking books The Hurried Child and Miseducation informed early childhood education professionals of the possible dangers of "pushing down" the elementary curriculum into the very early years of a child's life. By doing so, he argued, teachers and parents alike could lapse into developmentally inappropriate instructional and learning practices that may distort the smooth development of learning. He is associated with the belief of decline of social markers.

He also wrote Ties that Stress: The New Family Imbalance (1994), All Grown Up and No Place To Go (1988), and Reinventing Childhood (1988). His most recent article titled, "Can We Play?", is featured in Greater Good magazine (published by the Greater Good Science Center), and discusses how play is essential to positive human development but children are playing less than in previous eras.

from wikipedia.org

Reviews

[Holly Scudero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parenting is a big responsibility, and there’s always more to learn. And yet, if there’s one thing parents of young children always lack, it’s time to read up on the best ways to raise kids. Enter "Parenting on the Go" by David Elkind, a well-known children’s psychologist. This is not your average parenting guide; Elkind doesn’t offer a particular method, but instead a series of short (one-two page) pieces on various topics that affect children from birth to age six. By its very nature, this book does not explore any particular topic in depth, but instead this book is meant as a place to get some quick advice. For some of the topics, such oversimplification does a disservice to parents; for some of the more complex topics (such as weaning or vaccination), Elkind’s approach ignores the complexity of the issue and leaves a lot of pertinent information out. For others, such as all three sections on sleep, Elkind’s writing serves only to support outdated information and practices while ignoring other important research. But there is plenty of fantastic information to be found here too, especially with regards to communication, schooling, and the importance of play, and Elkind’s liberal and open approach to many a topic considered taboo is commendable.

Review originally published on "San Francisco Book Review."

[Xzs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A (never-married and childless) family friend and early childhood educator recommended this book to our family. I purchased this book because I felt pressured and obligated to read it. It is riddled with grammatical errors, which was a bit off putting. However, in spite of my resistance, I did find some value in the book. I picked up several useful pointers on children and their behaviors. Alas, I learned a few things that I will probably try to apply with my own kids, so I can't say reading this book was a complete waste of time!