Imperfect Parenting: How to Build a Relationship with Your Child to Weather Any Storm

by Dona J. Matthews

Written for parents of children from birth to young adulthood (ages 0-24), this book helps you examine your role as a guide, cheerleader, advocate, and most importantly, as a human being who doesn’t always have the right answers. While your child’s brain, body, emotions, and social abilities develop over time, author Dona Matthews shows how your skills as a parent can be developed too, by practicing relationship fundamentals such as acceptance, positivity, social support, boundaries, respect, self-care, and gratitude.

Rooted in the latest findings from neuroscience and psychology, this book presents a model of authoritative parenting that embraces imperfection. Each chapter focuses on a key relationship skill for parenting, with tips on how to practice it during different stages of your child’s growth and in common stressful situations such as social, school, health, and family scenarios.

Genres: Parenting

400 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2022

About the author

Dona Matthews, PhD, is a developmental psychologist who has worked with children, families, and schools since 1990. In addition to running a private practice with a focus on giftedness and other special needs, she was Executive Director, Millennium Dialogue on Early Child Development, University of Toronto, and founding Director, Hunter College Center for Gifted Studies and Education, City University of New York. She has published dozens of articles and book chapters, and is co-author of Beyond Intelligence: Secrets for Raising Happily Productive Kids; Being Smart about Gifted Education; The Development of Giftedness and Talent across the Life Span; and The Routledge International Companion to Gifted Education. www.beyondintelligence.net

Reviews

[Luna M]

I read this book because the title caught my eye, as it seems like there's a strong societal pressure to be the "Best Parents" around. While "Imperfect Parenting" had a lot of helpful advice, most of it was not concretely related to reducing the mainstream emphasis on perfectionism. A more appropriate title would be "Authoritative Parenting and Family Conflict Resolution." My second source of criticism is how repetitive the text is-- after the author sets the stage for her theory of parenting, we don't need 200+ extra pages repeating the same advice over and over again. Finally, I thought that the book needs a deeper analysis of class and racial privilege. Some of her advice is simply not practicable for folks from more disadvantaged backgrounds, while other suggestions could expose children from Black, brown, and/ or working-class families to CPS intervention and disruption.

[Kimberly Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imperfect Parenting by Dona Matthews is a guide for parents of children aged 0-24, in regard to building and maintaining a relationship with their child. There is a quiz that parents take in order to determine the style of parenting. Parenting styles include: permissive, authoritarian, neglectful, and authoritative. Tips are provided on how to support your child during his/her different stages of development. Each chapter focuses on one relationship skill, with tips on how to use it at the different ages. Thank you the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.