Purposeful Parenting: Six Steps to Bring Out the Best in Your Kids

by Jean Barnes, Jill Hubbard (Foreword)

Be the Best Parent for Your Child

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
Proverbs 22:6, NLT
How you parent directly impacts who your children are and who they will become.

No one is naturally born a good parent. It takes hard work, determination, and passionate intention to raise our kids right. In the end, we can either parent on purpose… or idly sit back and allow everything else in the world to shape our children into the men and women they will become.

In Purposeful Parenting, author Jean Barnes gives you six essential practices for successfully raising your kids. Learn how “You can be the parent you’ve always wanted to be—the parent God wants and your kids need, the parent with a purpose. Your life at home with your kids can be calmer, clearer, healthier, and happier today, starting right now.”

~Dr. Jill Hubbard, New Life Live Radio

Genres: Parenting

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2015

Reviews

[Accalia Martucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the small stories were helpful and thoughtful in seeing the author’s overall points and ideas. At times it was a bit boring for me, with lots of statistics and repetition. I do think a lot of the points could’ve been made in less words. That being said, I also really enjoyed reading it and there were lots of insightful approaches and ideas to help love and raise our children well. If you’re a research lover, this book has lots of sources to back up what it says. My favorite thing about the book was when it related the Bible to research and studies, reminding us God’s way and word will always stand the test of time, being perfect and true.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Purposeful Parenting: Six Steps to Bring Out the Best in Your Kids" is a great parenting book. It is so full of good ideas, scripture, instructions, solutions, advice, stories and questions that people of any age should be able to gain something from reading it.
Jean S. Barnes, the author, has over fifty years of experience working with children and parents. She has taught in public schools and worked as a counselor. She has written a book that can help teach everyone how to be a parent. She recognizes that being a parent does not usually come naturally, but requires a lot of hard work and determination.
"Purposeful Parenting" is broken into six chapters. They are very easy reading, and easily understood. The chapters cover loving unconditionally, discipline, pursuing passion, developing character, being responsible and perseverance. Each section is broken down into smaller, easy to digest sections. Barnes reminds us that all parents should be tapping into available resources for help. Teachers, schools and churches are usually available to provide teaching, training, insight and support. Also our family, but most importantly, God! When we allow God to be our greatest source of support we are doing something that is not only helpful for our children, but also for ourselves.
I would recommend this book for parents everywhere, no matter the ages of their kids. The book is so full of wisdom, advice, and even some good common sense reminders, that it will benefit the reader.
I received this book from The Book Club Network in exchange for my honest review.

[Urailak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think every parent agrees that parenting is hard work. We parents must be vigilant and intentional in parenting and training our child(ren). Based on Biblical principles and psychology, Purposeful Parenting presents six crucial ingredients for bringing out the best in our children: unconditional love, discipline, purpose & passion, character, responsibility, and perseverance. The book is packed with helpful advice, doable ideas, practical tools, and insightful tips. Each chapter includes "A Step Toward..." (concise tips for parents to put into practice) and "My Purposeful Parent Check-In" (a checklist to help parents examine how they are doing with their purposeful parenting). The author concludes the book with Parenting Takes a Team and My Prayer for Purpose. At the end of the book, you'll also find Your Skills and Abilities Checklist. I enjoyed reading this encouraging book and learning quite a bit from it. It's the kind of book that you would want to underline and reread because there's so much great information in it. The author shows parents how to change the challenges into opportunities to guide and train their children. I highly recommend this fantastic parenting book to every parent, stepparent, and grandparent. I'm definitely keeping this book for my kids to read when they become parents :).

"They need that just-right discipline; without it, no wonder researchers find children grow up with less (and sometimes lacking) impulse control, self-reliance, social responsibility, and independence." (p. 89)

~I received a free copy of this book via The Book Club Network (bookfun.org) in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Tima · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Turn Chaos to Calm, Stress to Sanity, and Confusion to Clarity."

The author takes a Biblical approach to explaining numerous scenarios and situations parents might find themselves in on the journey of raising children. There are only six chapters, but each chapter is packed with solutions, advice, stories, and thoughts. The steps are laid out clearly and the concepts are explained. The instructions to implement the steps are easy to understand and doable for a bewildered parent.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a huge book and will take some time to read, but it will be well worth your time. The author clearly knows and loves kids. This isn't one of those simple "do this and this will happen" types of books. Every kid is different, so the author has clearly taken this into account when writing the book. This is one of those books that I would recommend to all parents, regardless of their children's age.

I received this book free of charge from Book Club Network in exchange for my honest review.

[Cherie Kasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Transforming challenges into life changing events while loving your children. This statement made by Jean Barnes tells exactly what is contained in this book throughout the 6 chapters. She has broken it down to Six Guiding Principles for you to use with six guiding steps for the children.
Jean, being a psychologist , has insight into children and parenting that others of us may not have. After reading this book I really wished it had been around when I was raising my children. All the information is easy to understand, on a parenting level especially.
All of Jean's writing is spiritually based, she gives verses throughout that will help you understand. Parenting takes many things, but what I got most, is that Parenting takes God. This book is full of information that will keep you interested all the way through with many work pages to do also, and many other places to look up information.
I would recommend this book to all parents, new and old.
I received this book from bookfun.org in exchange for an honest review

[Britney · Rating 4 out of 5]

“How you parent directly impacts who your children are and who they will become.”

Purposeful Parenting: Six Steps to Bring Out the Best in Your Kids is a great parenting resource! Jean Barnes is an experienced teacher, counselor, psychologist, and mother. In this book, she offers six practices for use in successful parenting. They are:

Show your children that you truly love them
Use discipline to maintain life and freedom
Recognize the purpose and passions in your child’s heart
Help your child build good character
Empower your child to be responsible
Persevere through difficult times and never give up

Using a biblical approach, Jean shares knowledge, experiences, and recommendations for more purposeful parenting. Each of the practices she suggests is detailed, well written, and easy to understand. Purposeful Parenting is an enjoyable, insightful parenting resource!

I received a complimentary copy of this book through The Book Club Network in exchange for an unbiased review. I appreciate the opportunity to read this book and share my thoughts.

[Coleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a powerhouse on raising kids. There are literally hundreds of ideas and suggestions for seemingly every problem that could arise when parenting. The author is organized in her presentation, starting with a chapter on Love, then Discipline, Purpose, Character, Responsibility, and Perseverance. Each is thorough, but necessarily overlaps in the overall scheme of things. There are plenty of anecdotes and stories. And Yes, she does bring God and the bible into the child raising equation, but not so overwhelming as to bother folks who would object. How could anyone object to God if they have kids, no matter your religion? And there are other cites to well-known psychologists and child therapists to support her child practices. It is a book to be referenced as needed, and re-read.


I was lucky to win this book in a Goodreads contest!

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purposeful Parenting: Six Steps to Bring out the Best in your Kids by Jean S. Barnes, is a very informative book. Includes God in each step of every day and includes lists to help each reader decide what type of parent they are. Some of the topics include discipline, giving children love, purpose and passion, developing character and responsibility and so on.

I love when I read a parenting book and my daughter asks if she can look at when I am finished. She is a great mother but, as we all know, help is always welcome, especially when surrounded by God's Word and His love.

I would recommend this book to any parent, grandparent or potential parents.

I was given this book by bookfun.org in exchange for my honest review.

[Nyla Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

With over 50 years experience, including educator, psychologist & mother, Jean Barnes has written a book on raising children using biblical principals and common sense. With six easy to follow chapters she takes readers through steps that will help manage and guide children. "Purposeful Parenting: Six Steps to Bring Out the Best in Your Kids" is an excellent parenting resource for what every parent and grandparent wants...to bring out the best in our children. It is chocked full of wisdom, scripture, instructions, ideas, advice, and stories of experiences. Even as a grandmother I learned from it. It is engaging, humorous, enlightening, and yet serious. Any parent, new or seasoned, would appreciate reading this book. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Dawn Obrien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very well written book. I received this book from Good reads First reads giveaway. As I am a Christian I enjoyed this book. However I expected it to be more of a self help book but is actually more of a bible study. A lot of useful information and related scripture. This book is written for the hardcore Christian type. I truly agree that the world would be a much better place if we all practiced the biblical ways.
There is a lot of guidance and strategies for a very positive parenting experience.

[Lori Weller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purposeful Parenting is not a how to do it manual. It is more a book of examples that any parent can choose to implement for help in raising their children. There are six chapters and each one is full with stories, thoughts, and resources. It can be used by parents of children of any age group.
I received this book from the Book Club Network in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Kim Hampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I really agreed with the principles discussed, and loved that many of them were Biblical-based. I would love to see another book written by this author, discussing how to help your child deal with divorce.