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Wise-Minded Parenting: 7 Essentials for Raising Successful Tweens + Teens
Raising a happy and successful teenager is a challenge for any parent, even the most patient and wisest among us. Parenting adolescents requires all sorts of skills that most of us don’t naturally possess. In this down-to-earth, practical guide, you’ll learn how to tap your “wise mind” to calmly navigate even the stormiest of parenting moments. You'll learn how to preserve your loving relationship while encouraging progress towards the 7 essentials of happy, healthy teens:
- Secure attachment to parents
- Self-control
- Academic success
- Social thriving
- Emotional flourishing
- Strong character
- Physical health
With humor, wisdom and a deep understanding of the teenaged brain, Dr. Kastner, author of Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens and Teens, and Russell provide clear and useful tools for parents, giving them effective new ways to manage their own emotions in the heat of the moment with their teen while maintaining — and even gaining — closeness.
- Secure attachment to parents
- Self-control
- Academic success
- Social thriving
- Emotional flourishing
- Strong character
- Physical health
With humor, wisdom and a deep understanding of the teenaged brain, Dr. Kastner, author of Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens and Teens, and Russell provide clear and useful tools for parents, giving them effective new ways to manage their own emotions in the heat of the moment with their teen while maintaining — and even gaining — closeness.
- GenresParentingNonfiction
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 12, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 27, 2013
Do your tweens and tweens leaving you feeling helpless because their version of self expression and emotional awkwardness leaves little to be desired? Help is here. Laura S. Kastner, PH.D., has created a guide to help parents navigate through the tween and teen years with precision. Parents will learn how to bond with their teens, and how to deal with and accept their child's social identity and so much more.
As a parent you might be wondering what the definition of a wise-mind is and how you can acquire such a thing. According to Kastner, “The wise-minded parent moves beyond reason mind, which processes and responds to the mere facts of a situation.” Basically, this guide shares various techniques on how to settle emotions between parent and child. An example of an activity is as follows:
Glass Half-Full Practice
Positive feelings make us feel better and set the stage for the happiness of others around us. Over the next week, do one of these exercises every day. Consider enlisting your child to do the same (writing about a parent for number three).
1. Write down three good things that happened and their causes that day.
2. Write a letter of gratitude to someone who has made a difference in your life (send it or read it to them).
3. Write down three things that you appreciate about your child.
Parents will also learn how to tune into the signals of their child and respond appropriately. There is a lot more for parents to learn without them feeling overwhelmed.
Kastner provides detailed tips, facts from professionals, activities and tests to help parents better understand and manage themselves and their tweens and teens. For example: Chapter Four, Social Thriving, discusses how children need to socialize and the importance of it. Parents will learn how to help their child find good friends and establish healthy relationships, by not telling them what to do, but by proving to be trustworthy and nonjudgmental. Essential Tips from this chapter include: 1)Make an effort to know the families of your child's friends, 2)Be aware of your own baggage, 3)Keep up with what's going on in your child's social networking world. These are just a few tips offered in this section.
Parents will not find generalized information within these pages. Kastner has provided in-depth resources and information covering topics such as: Secure Attachment, Self Control, Academic Success, Emotional Flourishing and Strong Character to name a few. Each chapter has sub-text which will help parents delve deeper into finding solutions in helping readers become a wise-minded parent. Kastner has done due-diligence in offering support from the experts. The back pages share a list of resources that parents can utilize to learn more about child development. Professional resources are categorized by chapter in the back pages if parents want to learn more about the experts. This guide is not a fast read. The information found here will have parents seriously looking within themselves and their child to find lifetime sustaining solutions to help their children become the best that they can be.
As a parent you might be wondering what the definition of a wise-mind is and how you can acquire such a thing. According to Kastner, “The wise-minded parent moves beyond reason mind, which processes and responds to the mere facts of a situation.” Basically, this guide shares various techniques on how to settle emotions between parent and child. An example of an activity is as follows:
Glass Half-Full Practice
Positive feelings make us feel better and set the stage for the happiness of others around us. Over the next week, do one of these exercises every day. Consider enlisting your child to do the same (writing about a parent for number three).
1. Write down three good things that happened and their causes that day.
2. Write a letter of gratitude to someone who has made a difference in your life (send it or read it to them).
3. Write down three things that you appreciate about your child.
Parents will also learn how to tune into the signals of their child and respond appropriately. There is a lot more for parents to learn without them feeling overwhelmed.
Kastner provides detailed tips, facts from professionals, activities and tests to help parents better understand and manage themselves and their tweens and teens. For example: Chapter Four, Social Thriving, discusses how children need to socialize and the importance of it. Parents will learn how to help their child find good friends and establish healthy relationships, by not telling them what to do, but by proving to be trustworthy and nonjudgmental. Essential Tips from this chapter include: 1)Make an effort to know the families of your child's friends, 2)Be aware of your own baggage, 3)Keep up with what's going on in your child's social networking world. These are just a few tips offered in this section.
Parents will not find generalized information within these pages. Kastner has provided in-depth resources and information covering topics such as: Secure Attachment, Self Control, Academic Success, Emotional Flourishing and Strong Character to name a few. Each chapter has sub-text which will help parents delve deeper into finding solutions in helping readers become a wise-minded parent. Kastner has done due-diligence in offering support from the experts. The back pages share a list of resources that parents can utilize to learn more about child development. Professional resources are categorized by chapter in the back pages if parents want to learn more about the experts. This guide is not a fast read. The information found here will have parents seriously looking within themselves and their child to find lifetime sustaining solutions to help their children become the best that they can be.
January 27, 2014
I just didn't relate to this laid back approach to disrespectful teens. The examples of typical teen/ parent dialogue horrified me. Either this book was way off or my Tweens are exceptionally respectful.
June 14, 2018
After reading this book I'm feeling great - I'm doing all the right things with my tween/teen...she still argues with me daily, and is in a constant mood, but, that is okay.
This was actually just the kind of book I needed - to remind me to keep perspective and chill out. The moods and arguing are perfectly normal and I just need to ride it out.
This was actually just the kind of book I needed - to remind me to keep perspective and chill out. The moods and arguing are perfectly normal and I just need to ride it out.
May 29, 2023
We did this as a book study for our parenting class at church. It worked very well as a 7-week study. The book tied together many themes from other studies and books, including Grit. And It highlighted some important ideas in the tween and teenage years about not taking things personally as home is a safe haven. Would highly recommend the book.
April 7, 2016
I am the type of person that researches a topic to death. So I've read a ton of parenting books. Since my children are not at the tween age yet, I thought I'd get a jump on it and read this book. I was pleasantly surprised. The book is filled with tons facts and information, but is also incredibly easy to read and process. The ideas and thoughts given are easy to incorporate and sound reasonable.
The concept behind the book is letting go of emotions when dealing with an emotional child so that wise parenting can come into play, instead of a fight to the end with your child. Essential tips, bullet points and hypothetical conversations are extremely helpful and were brought back to my mind several times this week when dealing with my children.
While geared towards older children, I found them very helpful with my younger children as well. If you want emotionally stable children and less stress for yourself during the process, pick up this book and implement the ideas the author has presented. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with kids.
I received this book free of charge from Sandpiper Publicity in exchange for my honest review.
The concept behind the book is letting go of emotions when dealing with an emotional child so that wise parenting can come into play, instead of a fight to the end with your child. Essential tips, bullet points and hypothetical conversations are extremely helpful and were brought back to my mind several times this week when dealing with my children.
While geared towards older children, I found them very helpful with my younger children as well. If you want emotionally stable children and less stress for yourself during the process, pick up this book and implement the ideas the author has presented. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with kids.
I received this book free of charge from Sandpiper Publicity in exchange for my honest review.
April 9, 2019
although I personally find a great deal of the information helpful, it is clearly written with a middle-upper middle class family in mind. Culturally, it seems skewed towards the "traditional" white American family.
January 11, 2016
Refreshingly down to earth and nuanced for a mainstream parenting guide.
February 29, 2016
The best parenting book in the world.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews