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Raising Good Humans Every Day: 50 Simple Ways to Press Pause, Stay Present, and Connect with Your Kids
Little ways to stay mindful, be present, and raise good humans—every day! As a parent, it’s the little things you do each and every day that can help your kids grow up to be kind, confident, and conscientious human beings. But if you’re like many parents, you’re probably feeling overwhelmed by the daily rush of getting to school on time, helping your kid finish their homework, planning meals, and all the seemingly endless tasks that pile up and steal the fun out of just being with your child. That’s why you need quick, effective tools to stay present and manage emotions—both your child’s and your own! From the author of Raising Good Humans, this “go-to” daily guide offers 50 simple ways to press pause, stop reacting, and start parenting with intention. You’ll also find mindfulness skills for calming your own stress when difficult emotions arise; and tips for cultivating respectful communication, effective conflict resolution, and reflective listening. Most importantly, by following these daily techniques, you’ll learn to break the unhelpful patterns and ingrained reactions that reflect the generational habits shaped by your parents, so you can respond to your children in more skillful ways. Busy parents will You’ll also learn how to develop a “teaching mindset” when faced with difficult behavior, and find tons of creative and playful activities to increase cooperation in your child. Being a parent is a lot of work, but it can also be joyful and fun. Let this daily guide help you enjoy those little moments—they mean so much!
216 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2023
180 people are currently reading
3885 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
July 15, 2025
I feel like this is actually a really good and useful book for parents! The last several books I worked on were quite good, which I'm glad. Makes it easier to translate when you agree with what is being said.
This one I'm excited about, I hope it comes out soon (I know it won't, there's still a lot of work ahead). And it's definitely something I'd recommend to parent, maybe coupled with her first book as well. I haven't read that one yet, but now I want to.
This one I'm excited about, I hope it comes out soon (I know it won't, there's still a lot of work ahead). And it's definitely something I'd recommend to parent, maybe coupled with her first book as well. I haven't read that one yet, but now I want to.
October 25, 2023
Has a lot of good food for thought. I didn't agree with everything, and I personally would just replace most of the mindfulness meditation bits with prayer, but it was helpful and I would definitely re-read at some point.
June 29, 2023
Having read and enjoyed Raising Good Humans a few years ago, I was excited to find this follow-up available as an advanced copy for review (thanks Netgalley, New Harbinger Publications and the author, Hunter Clarke-Fields!)
The idea behind this book is the same as the first one- to cultivate a better relationship with our children through more mindful, present parenting. This differs from the first book however as Raising Good Humans Every Day is meant to be more of a daily guidebook, with an emphasis on parental emotions, calmness, self-love and having compassion for ourselves first so that we may be capable of more effective listening to our children and more compassionate behavior towards them.
This is book is written for moms of all stripes and was completely relatable to me as a mom of many. Several types of behavioral scenarios are presented in the book and I found myself nodding along in understanding because of the familiarity of them. Hunter Clarke-Fields gives us the tools to help manage and defuse negative interactions, leading to more positive outcomes for us and for our child.
She provides exercises, advice without guilt, and realistic tips for slowing down in the moment, managing how we react to difficult situations and how to approach them from a more calm and compassionate place.
I can see myself referring back to the pages that brought me the most comfort while reading through the first time. Different types of breathing exercises, the "calm-down kit" (brilliant!) and the sections in which the author reminds us all that there is no such thing as a perfect parent will be pages that I bookmark for future reference. I recommend picking up a copy of Raising Good Humans Every Day to any caregiver who wants to practice more mindful parenting and develop a better connection with their child.
The idea behind this book is the same as the first one- to cultivate a better relationship with our children through more mindful, present parenting. This differs from the first book however as Raising Good Humans Every Day is meant to be more of a daily guidebook, with an emphasis on parental emotions, calmness, self-love and having compassion for ourselves first so that we may be capable of more effective listening to our children and more compassionate behavior towards them.
This is book is written for moms of all stripes and was completely relatable to me as a mom of many. Several types of behavioral scenarios are presented in the book and I found myself nodding along in understanding because of the familiarity of them. Hunter Clarke-Fields gives us the tools to help manage and defuse negative interactions, leading to more positive outcomes for us and for our child.
She provides exercises, advice without guilt, and realistic tips for slowing down in the moment, managing how we react to difficult situations and how to approach them from a more calm and compassionate place.
I can see myself referring back to the pages that brought me the most comfort while reading through the first time. Different types of breathing exercises, the "calm-down kit" (brilliant!) and the sections in which the author reminds us all that there is no such thing as a perfect parent will be pages that I bookmark for future reference. I recommend picking up a copy of Raising Good Humans Every Day to any caregiver who wants to practice more mindful parenting and develop a better connection with their child.
January 12, 2024
Had lots of good reminders and ideas. I didn't agree with every perspective she pointed out, but the overall message for parents to connect with their children is good.
August 11, 2025
Good reminders- but lots of information that overwhelmed me.
April 14, 2025
This is a great book, lots of easy to understand tips. This is one I will keep coming back to as reminders. I will read the more detailed version of this book soon.
September 14, 2024
A compassionate and thorough book on mindful parenting, full of things I wish I knew 23 years ago, but I’m grateful to understand better now.
Quotes/ideas:
Parents are effectively telling their children “You change your behavior and emotions so that I feel better.” We’re asking our children to regulate our feelings.
Telling our kids to stop their upset feelings simply doesn’t work. If we can regulate our emotions instead, we can be the calm mountain and give our children a solid anchor in their emotional storm.
“The way to be a good parent is to be a good enough parent. Children actually need their primary caretaker to fail them in tolerable ways regularly so they can learn to live in an imperfect world.” - Donald Winnicott
Mistakes and imperfections are what make us human. Instead of perfection, can we offer ourselves a little grace? Can we allow our kids to be mistake-making humans, too? Instead of perfection, let us practice instead to be present. To be really here for the good and the bad.
Co-regulation is when caregivers support children emotionally so they can develop their own self-regulation. We can teach kids to regulate their emotions through regulating our own feelings, creating an emotionally safe environment, and coaching them.
“The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and teflon for positive ones. We naturally give more attention to difficulties and bad news.” -Rick Hanson
Connection is the glue that makes parenting easier and the negativity bias can actively undermine it. Our view of our children can become narrow and biased. We see the uncooperative moments rather than the cooperative ones. We see their selfish moments but miss their generosity.
Observe yourselves this week to see if you can notice when your mind veers toward the negative, seeing the bad behavior. Try to shift your focus to what your child does that is kind, generous, helpful or generally positive.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Viktor Frankl
In Chinese, the ideogram for mindfulness is the character for “presence” or “now”, above the character for “heart.” So we can think of mindfulness as “present heart.”
As you practice observing your mind’s chaos, feelings, and impulses, but not reacting, you can start to see thoughts as just that: words or images that exist only in your head. You start to see how useless your judgements are. Bit by bit you become calmer and less reactive. MRI brain scans of meditators show physical changes in the brain structure. Amygdala actually appear to shrink, reactivity weakness, the PFC becomes thicker. Functional connectivity changes, fight or flight weakens, while areas associated with attention grow stronger.
Breathing in I calm my body
Breathing out I feel peace
Breathing in I smile
Breathing out I release
Calm, peace, smile, release
Ticht Nacht Han
Kristin Neff - “Anger is a mama bear energy that can be constructive. It focuses and energizes you, helps you draw boundaries and suppresses the fear response. Figuring out whether anger is destructive or constructive is very simple. Does it help alleviate suffering or does it make suffering worse.” If we can think of anger as a messenger then you can learn from anger. Consider getting curious about what anger is telling you.
Look at our emotions pragmatically and see that they supply information, telling us whether we are in balance. You can see your children’s feelings that way, too. Their behavior is communication about their present emotional state, giving you clues about their needs. If you can see emotions this way, it can dispel some of the the drama. It’s simply information. Don’t shoot the messenger.
“All that stuff that keeps you safe from feeling scary emotions, they also keep you from feeling the good emotions. You have to shake those off. You have to become vulnerable.” -Brene Brown
As children, we had just two ways to handle our difficult feelings: blocking or drowning. Blocking is when you try to block or deny the discomfort by pushing through it through force of will. We do this by distracting ourselves or by self-medicating. Ultimately not helpful, your uncomfortable feelings come back even stronger. Drowning sends us into a downward spiral with negative thoughts, which leads to sense of hopelessness and powerlessness, still not processing the feelings.
Kurt Storing - “Imagine you don’t have a digestive system and you eat a big hamburger, an emotional hamburger. It’s going into your body but it isn’t digested. Eventually someone is going to poke you, and that hamburger will make a mess everywhere.” Rather than blocking or drowning, we can learn to process our big feelings, our emotional hamburgers. Feel the sensations of emotions but not get swept away with them. Stay with them. Say yes and practice to accept them.
Tara Brach’s RAIN to process feelings - recognize, allow, investigate, nurture
Brene Brown’s 2010 TEDtalk- Vulnerability is in fact the birthplace of our most profound feelings, including joy, creativity, belonging and love. We cannot selectively numb our emotions. When we numb grief, shame and fear, we also numb joy and happiness. No mud, no lotus.
Kahil Gibran “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
“Parenthood: it’s about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last.” Peter Krause
Forgiveness is often wrongly understood. You do not do it for other people, but for yourself. You’re not letting anyone off the hook, you’re freeing yourself.
How to stop seeing yesterday’s child. Choose the orientation of freshness, we see our children as they are in this moment and we’re more open to possibilities. Practicing beginner’s mind can help you avoid confirmation bias, the mind’s tendency to seek out information that supports views we already hold. Easily accept information consistent with our beliefs, but strongly question information that contradicts them. Can lead us to the wrong conclusions. Let’s clean our lenses instead. Beginner’s mind doesn’t mean we chuck all our life lessons or walk into dangerous situations. Rather, it’s about bring curiosity or even awe to this moment. What if we can see our children as if we’ve been away for weeks, so we start to see their magic and beauty. What if we see our children and ourselves without all the stories and judgements.
“Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better?” - Jane Nelson
“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” - Franklin P. Jones
“There are no perfect parents, and there are no perfect children, but there are plenty of perfect moments along the way.” - Dave Willis
Healthy communication with your older child:
Be authentic
Let them know you care
Listen attentively
Practice letting go of judgements and criticism. Be open minded.
Make time together. Family meals, dates
Be your child’s Calm mountain
1. Accept your child’s feelings or state
2. Sit down and breathe. Be still. Imagine your body is solid and steady as a mountain.
3. Tell yourself that you are a mountain. Breathe in and out “mountain” and “solid”
4. Repeat as needed
5. Offer yourself compassion
Discipline does not mean to punish, it comes from the Latin word “discipulus” which means disciple, student, learner, pupil. To disciple means to teach.
“There are only 940 Saturdays between a child’s birth and her leaving for college.” - Harley Rotbart
Time is our most precious, most valuable resource. Let’s spend it one what is most precious to us- our relationship with people that we love.
“When children are young and growing, we adults can offer the protection of more time and ease, less speed and clutter. We can be the stewards of our child’s home environment, setting limits and saying no to too many choices, too much stuff.” - Kim John Payne
The glut of toys and stuff lead to a cluttered, chaotic environment. We know from research that clutter leads to higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in adults. Kids, too, feel the stress. Their behavior often reflects the disorder around them. Happily, simplifying can help. In one study, 68% of kids diagnosed with ADD went from clinically dysfunctional to clinically functional in four months of a regime which included simplifying stuff, schedules and media.
Less stuff means more ease, greater creativity and greater focus on the relationships. It creates an environment and promotes both you and your child’s emotional well-being.
“In the day’s most regular rhythms it’s high notes, the meals and bath times, the playtimes and bedtimes, young children begin to see their place in the comings and goings in the great song of family.” Kim John Payne
“If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our sabbath, our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create sabbath for us.” - Wayne Muller
We need downtime. Kids need downtime and they need us to protect their downtime for them.
Free play allows children to stretch their imaginations, solve problems and process their world. It’s the essence of childhood and it’s under attack.
Rigid control (anxious, irritated) makes us fall out of flow, out of connection. We want this kind of rigid control because of fear. The ego, your sense of a separate self, is fighting for your survival. It wants to shore up your self image. It seeks validation and safety in the wider world.
At some point or other, your inner voice comes out. Your kids will eventually hear your inner voice. If you don’t want your kids to absorb the the hostility of the inner critic, it’s imperative that you interrupt this habit.
Russ Harris “The problem is not with our negative thoughts, but that we believe that these thoughts are true. We have become fused with negative critical thoughts that leave us feeling helpless. Therefore we have to defuse them, or get a bit of distance from those thoughts.”
Interrupt your thoughts with “I’m having the thought that. .. “ it loses it’s power. Now it’s just a thought. When you interrupt a thought like this, that little bit of space allows you to consider whether this thought is helpful or not. The more often you interrupt that neural pattern, the less likely it is to repeat in the future.
My favorite way to respond to a bored kid comes from Kim John Payne, say “Something to do is right around the corner.” Gives your child the gift of lifelong creativity, self-knowledge, self-confidence and more.
For most of us, the biggest barrier to our slowing down is ourselves. How can we decelerate:
Three ideas for slowing down:
1. Regular mindfulness meditation practices
2. Work out your faster energy- vigorous exercise every day
3. Create a ritual to Transition from efficient work mode. Be deliberate about switching gears- laughter, love, connection, only available in the present moment
Actively take in wholesome, positive experiences that can soothe us and counteract the negative. Leaning in to positive experiences isn’t just to feel good. It actually has far-reaching benefits, including a stronger immune system, lifting mood, increasing optimism, resilience and counteracting the effects of painful experiences, including trauma. Will help you become a more present, in-tune parent to your child.
Rick Hanson’s Buddha’s Brain “Take in the positive”
1. Actively look for good news
2. Savor the experience for 5, 10 or 20 seconds
3. Imagine the experience is entering deeply into your mind and body
We need to remember that our own peace and happiness is the essential foundation for this healthy relationship. The example of how we live teaches much more than our words.
Quotes/ideas:
Parents are effectively telling their children “You change your behavior and emotions so that I feel better.” We’re asking our children to regulate our feelings.
Telling our kids to stop their upset feelings simply doesn’t work. If we can regulate our emotions instead, we can be the calm mountain and give our children a solid anchor in their emotional storm.
“The way to be a good parent is to be a good enough parent. Children actually need their primary caretaker to fail them in tolerable ways regularly so they can learn to live in an imperfect world.” - Donald Winnicott
Mistakes and imperfections are what make us human. Instead of perfection, can we offer ourselves a little grace? Can we allow our kids to be mistake-making humans, too? Instead of perfection, let us practice instead to be present. To be really here for the good and the bad.
Co-regulation is when caregivers support children emotionally so they can develop their own self-regulation. We can teach kids to regulate their emotions through regulating our own feelings, creating an emotionally safe environment, and coaching them.
“The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and teflon for positive ones. We naturally give more attention to difficulties and bad news.” -Rick Hanson
Connection is the glue that makes parenting easier and the negativity bias can actively undermine it. Our view of our children can become narrow and biased. We see the uncooperative moments rather than the cooperative ones. We see their selfish moments but miss their generosity.
Observe yourselves this week to see if you can notice when your mind veers toward the negative, seeing the bad behavior. Try to shift your focus to what your child does that is kind, generous, helpful or generally positive.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Viktor Frankl
In Chinese, the ideogram for mindfulness is the character for “presence” or “now”, above the character for “heart.” So we can think of mindfulness as “present heart.”
As you practice observing your mind’s chaos, feelings, and impulses, but not reacting, you can start to see thoughts as just that: words or images that exist only in your head. You start to see how useless your judgements are. Bit by bit you become calmer and less reactive. MRI brain scans of meditators show physical changes in the brain structure. Amygdala actually appear to shrink, reactivity weakness, the PFC becomes thicker. Functional connectivity changes, fight or flight weakens, while areas associated with attention grow stronger.
Breathing in I calm my body
Breathing out I feel peace
Breathing in I smile
Breathing out I release
Calm, peace, smile, release
Ticht Nacht Han
Kristin Neff - “Anger is a mama bear energy that can be constructive. It focuses and energizes you, helps you draw boundaries and suppresses the fear response. Figuring out whether anger is destructive or constructive is very simple. Does it help alleviate suffering or does it make suffering worse.” If we can think of anger as a messenger then you can learn from anger. Consider getting curious about what anger is telling you.
Look at our emotions pragmatically and see that they supply information, telling us whether we are in balance. You can see your children’s feelings that way, too. Their behavior is communication about their present emotional state, giving you clues about their needs. If you can see emotions this way, it can dispel some of the the drama. It’s simply information. Don’t shoot the messenger.
“All that stuff that keeps you safe from feeling scary emotions, they also keep you from feeling the good emotions. You have to shake those off. You have to become vulnerable.” -Brene Brown
As children, we had just two ways to handle our difficult feelings: blocking or drowning. Blocking is when you try to block or deny the discomfort by pushing through it through force of will. We do this by distracting ourselves or by self-medicating. Ultimately not helpful, your uncomfortable feelings come back even stronger. Drowning sends us into a downward spiral with negative thoughts, which leads to sense of hopelessness and powerlessness, still not processing the feelings.
Kurt Storing - “Imagine you don’t have a digestive system and you eat a big hamburger, an emotional hamburger. It’s going into your body but it isn’t digested. Eventually someone is going to poke you, and that hamburger will make a mess everywhere.” Rather than blocking or drowning, we can learn to process our big feelings, our emotional hamburgers. Feel the sensations of emotions but not get swept away with them. Stay with them. Say yes and practice to accept them.
Tara Brach’s RAIN to process feelings - recognize, allow, investigate, nurture
Brene Brown’s 2010 TEDtalk- Vulnerability is in fact the birthplace of our most profound feelings, including joy, creativity, belonging and love. We cannot selectively numb our emotions. When we numb grief, shame and fear, we also numb joy and happiness. No mud, no lotus.
Kahil Gibran “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
“Parenthood: it’s about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last.” Peter Krause
Forgiveness is often wrongly understood. You do not do it for other people, but for yourself. You’re not letting anyone off the hook, you’re freeing yourself.
How to stop seeing yesterday’s child. Choose the orientation of freshness, we see our children as they are in this moment and we’re more open to possibilities. Practicing beginner’s mind can help you avoid confirmation bias, the mind’s tendency to seek out information that supports views we already hold. Easily accept information consistent with our beliefs, but strongly question information that contradicts them. Can lead us to the wrong conclusions. Let’s clean our lenses instead. Beginner’s mind doesn’t mean we chuck all our life lessons or walk into dangerous situations. Rather, it’s about bring curiosity or even awe to this moment. What if we can see our children as if we’ve been away for weeks, so we start to see their magic and beauty. What if we see our children and ourselves without all the stories and judgements.
“Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better?” - Jane Nelson
“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” - Franklin P. Jones
“There are no perfect parents, and there are no perfect children, but there are plenty of perfect moments along the way.” - Dave Willis
Healthy communication with your older child:
Be authentic
Let them know you care
Listen attentively
Practice letting go of judgements and criticism. Be open minded.
Make time together. Family meals, dates
Be your child’s Calm mountain
1. Accept your child’s feelings or state
2. Sit down and breathe. Be still. Imagine your body is solid and steady as a mountain.
3. Tell yourself that you are a mountain. Breathe in and out “mountain” and “solid”
4. Repeat as needed
5. Offer yourself compassion
Discipline does not mean to punish, it comes from the Latin word “discipulus” which means disciple, student, learner, pupil. To disciple means to teach.
“There are only 940 Saturdays between a child’s birth and her leaving for college.” - Harley Rotbart
Time is our most precious, most valuable resource. Let’s spend it one what is most precious to us- our relationship with people that we love.
“When children are young and growing, we adults can offer the protection of more time and ease, less speed and clutter. We can be the stewards of our child’s home environment, setting limits and saying no to too many choices, too much stuff.” - Kim John Payne
The glut of toys and stuff lead to a cluttered, chaotic environment. We know from research that clutter leads to higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in adults. Kids, too, feel the stress. Their behavior often reflects the disorder around them. Happily, simplifying can help. In one study, 68% of kids diagnosed with ADD went from clinically dysfunctional to clinically functional in four months of a regime which included simplifying stuff, schedules and media.
Less stuff means more ease, greater creativity and greater focus on the relationships. It creates an environment and promotes both you and your child’s emotional well-being.
“In the day’s most regular rhythms it’s high notes, the meals and bath times, the playtimes and bedtimes, young children begin to see their place in the comings and goings in the great song of family.” Kim John Payne
“If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our sabbath, our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create sabbath for us.” - Wayne Muller
We need downtime. Kids need downtime and they need us to protect their downtime for them.
Free play allows children to stretch their imaginations, solve problems and process their world. It’s the essence of childhood and it’s under attack.
Rigid control (anxious, irritated) makes us fall out of flow, out of connection. We want this kind of rigid control because of fear. The ego, your sense of a separate self, is fighting for your survival. It wants to shore up your self image. It seeks validation and safety in the wider world.
At some point or other, your inner voice comes out. Your kids will eventually hear your inner voice. If you don’t want your kids to absorb the the hostility of the inner critic, it’s imperative that you interrupt this habit.
Russ Harris “The problem is not with our negative thoughts, but that we believe that these thoughts are true. We have become fused with negative critical thoughts that leave us feeling helpless. Therefore we have to defuse them, or get a bit of distance from those thoughts.”
Interrupt your thoughts with “I’m having the thought that. .. “ it loses it’s power. Now it’s just a thought. When you interrupt a thought like this, that little bit of space allows you to consider whether this thought is helpful or not. The more often you interrupt that neural pattern, the less likely it is to repeat in the future.
My favorite way to respond to a bored kid comes from Kim John Payne, say “Something to do is right around the corner.” Gives your child the gift of lifelong creativity, self-knowledge, self-confidence and more.
For most of us, the biggest barrier to our slowing down is ourselves. How can we decelerate:
Three ideas for slowing down:
1. Regular mindfulness meditation practices
2. Work out your faster energy- vigorous exercise every day
3. Create a ritual to Transition from efficient work mode. Be deliberate about switching gears- laughter, love, connection, only available in the present moment
Actively take in wholesome, positive experiences that can soothe us and counteract the negative. Leaning in to positive experiences isn’t just to feel good. It actually has far-reaching benefits, including a stronger immune system, lifting mood, increasing optimism, resilience and counteracting the effects of painful experiences, including trauma. Will help you become a more present, in-tune parent to your child.
Rick Hanson’s Buddha’s Brain “Take in the positive”
1. Actively look for good news
2. Savor the experience for 5, 10 or 20 seconds
3. Imagine the experience is entering deeply into your mind and body
We need to remember that our own peace and happiness is the essential foundation for this healthy relationship. The example of how we live teaches much more than our words.
April 8, 2024
This book is just a compilation of advice from other authors. I don’t mind that in podcast format, but it’s not what I’m looking for in a book. Having already read Thich Nhat Hanh, Brene Brown and Janet Lansbury and books like Hunt Gather Parent, The Montessori Toddler and Simplicity Parenting there was nothing new here for me. It could be a good resource for parents who don’t spend much time digging into these topics and just want some quick advice.
February 26, 2025
Un livre rempli de conseils bienveillants pour une parentalité douce. Cet ouvrage n'apporte pas de culpabilité mais plutôt vous invite doucement à essayer des techniques autant sur vous que sur vos enfants. j'ai énormément apprécié sa lecture facile en 50 chapitres, dont chacun d'eux apportait une nouvelle chose à pratiquer soi-même ou aupres de ses enfants. J'aurais aimé que ce livre soit traduit en français pour le recommander à des membres de ma famille non bilingue.
May 14, 2023
I give 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5) for this thoughtful and useful book. I think just about every parent/care-giver will find something helpful in it.
Each chapter is short and focused, making the book manageable to read. That's important for busy parents! In each chapter, the author gives specific strategies to try, backed by expert opinions and research. The strategies also often relate to the author's personal experiences as a parent; her honesty made me more convinced that these strategies work.
I appreciated how detailed and varied the strategies were, covering everything from mindfulness to playfulness. As the author notes, the strategies - for example, tactical breathing - are "win-wins." When a parent models the strategy in front of a child, not only does the care-giver become more calm and present, the child is able to use those strategies to regulate their emotions, too.
In a time when everyone seems to have an opinion on sleep-training, baby-led weaning, spanking, etc., it is refreshing to read a book about having compassion for ourselves and our children.
However, I wanted - and expected, based on the title of the book - to see more about teaching children to have compassion for others, too. Chapter 34 has some good information on resolving conflicts, and Chapter 44 is focused on cultivating helpfulness within the home. So, while the sub-title of the book is an apt descriptor, the book's title is a bit misleading. It feels like something is missing.
I still think this is a fantastic book. I know I will return to it often as I parent, and I plan to recommend it to my friends who are parents, too!
Disclaimer: I received a free electronic advanced reader copy from NetGalley. I was not required to provide a positive review.
Each chapter is short and focused, making the book manageable to read. That's important for busy parents! In each chapter, the author gives specific strategies to try, backed by expert opinions and research. The strategies also often relate to the author's personal experiences as a parent; her honesty made me more convinced that these strategies work.
I appreciated how detailed and varied the strategies were, covering everything from mindfulness to playfulness. As the author notes, the strategies - for example, tactical breathing - are "win-wins." When a parent models the strategy in front of a child, not only does the care-giver become more calm and present, the child is able to use those strategies to regulate their emotions, too.
In a time when everyone seems to have an opinion on sleep-training, baby-led weaning, spanking, etc., it is refreshing to read a book about having compassion for ourselves and our children.
However, I wanted - and expected, based on the title of the book - to see more about teaching children to have compassion for others, too. Chapter 34 has some good information on resolving conflicts, and Chapter 44 is focused on cultivating helpfulness within the home. So, while the sub-title of the book is an apt descriptor, the book's title is a bit misleading. It feels like something is missing.
I still think this is a fantastic book. I know I will return to it often as I parent, and I plan to recommend it to my friends who are parents, too!
Disclaimer: I received a free electronic advanced reader copy from NetGalley. I was not required to provide a positive review.
January 29, 2025
This book is built as fifty swift-moving chapters, each able to be picked up at random, and each rooted in a respectful/mindful/conscious parenting/teaching strategy. Whereas her original book Raising Good Humans explores more in-depth the science behind raising a child and the impacts of various suggested methods with actionable steps, Raising Good Humans Every Day reverses the structure somewhat, centering around individual methods and practice steps. I would rate the original publication higher than this companion text yet found it to be a pleasant-enough review.
While I align with nearly all of the cited/recommended content and appreciate this book’s structure as one easily able to be passed to other caretakers, my primary critique is that the book feels like a set of podcast-formulaic, meta-analytic essays — each one embedding the findings of another all-star parenting guru and a sound-bite personal anecdote. That said, I appreciate that she is successful podcaster with an engaging, practical voice that cites her sources, but English-teacher-me simply craved more variety tor as many chapters as there are. While I read this book in hand, portions of the book I was able to visit or revisit via audiobook, and I will say the audio is relaxing & great for practicing the mindfulness tricks.
While I align with nearly all of the cited/recommended content and appreciate this book’s structure as one easily able to be passed to other caretakers, my primary critique is that the book feels like a set of podcast-formulaic, meta-analytic essays — each one embedding the findings of another all-star parenting guru and a sound-bite personal anecdote. That said, I appreciate that she is successful podcaster with an engaging, practical voice that cites her sources, but English-teacher-me simply craved more variety tor as many chapters as there are. While I read this book in hand, portions of the book I was able to visit or revisit via audiobook, and I will say the audio is relaxing & great for practicing the mindfulness tricks.
November 13, 2023
In her book, Raising Good Humans Every Day: 50 Simple Ways to Press Pause, Stay Present & Connect with Your Kids, Hunter Clarke-Fields offers a handy set of quickly read suggestions for parents. It would be a great stocking stuffer. The book could fit into one’s purse and be pulled out in moments of stress or pause.
Like a wise parent whisperer, Clarke-Fields offers many good tips, like ‘yelling is not your fault, but is your responsibility’ and ‘take your child on a date.’ She offers ways to see children with new eyes, guiding parents on how to stop barking orders, and instead learn to listen, connect, and let go of any harmful ways they were parented. The book is full of ways to self-coach and build habits of patience and self-compassion. Good for the parent and great for the kids!
Like a wise parent whisperer, Clarke-Fields offers many good tips, like ‘yelling is not your fault, but is your responsibility’ and ‘take your child on a date.’ She offers ways to see children with new eyes, guiding parents on how to stop barking orders, and instead learn to listen, connect, and let go of any harmful ways they were parented. The book is full of ways to self-coach and build habits of patience and self-compassion. Good for the parent and great for the kids!
September 8, 2024
This book offers helpful reminders, as well as suggestions in short, thoughtful, concentrated chapters. If there are specific topics, you’re interested in you could just go directly to those chapters. I thought it was worth the read. I’ve implemented several of the suggestions and it helped me to think differently about a few things. It’s a book I will probably refer to in the future when certain issues arise. A fair amount of the book focuses on the emotions and mindset of the parents and mindfulness practices for the adults. For me, some of it was relevant and some of it was not, but I think that’s true of most parenting books. There was certainly enough that was relevant, and I appreciate that the author ends each chapter with actionable steps.
August 21, 2023
We LOVE Hunter Clarke-Fields’ new book “Raising Good Humans Every Day”, especially after reading her first book “Raising Good Humans”. This new parenting book is really easy-to-read because the 50 short chapters are only 3-5 pages each that you can read on-the-go. Hunter is also very humble as a mom, and emphasizes that “parenting is hard”. Throughout the book, she gives you helpful mindfulness tools and exercises that are very calming. For example, there is a tactical breathing exercise used by Navy Seals at the end of the first chapter. Beyond grateful to find this new book, and get an autographed copy at Hunter’s book launch party. Highly recommended!
April 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this simple but powerful book about being more present when parenting. The author shares a variety of scenarios and how to improve one’s approach when addressing problem areas when parenting children. There were several moments in the book that also gave grace to the parents for learning new ways to parent so that you have fewer frustrations and to just enjoy the journey that is parenting. I hope to look back at the info when I get the physical copy to refer a little more to.
I listened to the audiobook but was wishing that I had the physical book to read back with certain points. It’s becoming a pattern where I will listen to a nonfiction book and will want the physical book too. Lol 😂 I guess that I will need to remember that the next nonfiction book I read. 😅
I listened to the audiobook but was wishing that I had the physical book to read back with certain points. It’s becoming a pattern where I will listen to a nonfiction book and will want the physical book too. Lol 😂 I guess that I will need to remember that the next nonfiction book I read. 😅
June 26, 2025
Sometimes you find a book at just the right time in your life and that was me with this book. Last week I was overstimulated staying home with my little one and I explained to my husband I just needed a break, even for a couple of hours. This book was jam packed with lots of useful information for parents of newborns, teens, and anywhere in between. I read the ebook version but I will be buying a physical copy to highlight and markup. I already have sticky notes around my house of some of the reminders and actions the author called us to complete as reading. Such simple, yet sound advice from the author that I will be reading other titles by her.
June 28, 2023
I loved Raising Good Humans and enjoyed this one as well. Both are very useful for parents who really want to slow down and connect with their children while building their emotional intelligence and setting the foundation for how their children will experience life. I appreciated the short chapters in this one with realistic strategies. I think this is one of those resources that parents will have with highlighted spots and sticky note tabs hanging out of that they can come back to again and again.
October 15, 2023
This book was jammed packed with information and tips that I will be coming back to. There were so many useful tools and practices for parents regardless of how many kids you have. I thoroughly enjoyed the examples and techniques given at the end of each section too. There were many para that really resonated with me and helped to ground me so I could be more present with each of my kids. I would highly recommend having a physical copy to refer to when needed! Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.
May 8, 2024
I recommend this book as a really useful reference for parents with short, useful chapters. This is the mini version of the authors “Raising Good Humans,” and I really felt like it reminded me of some good parenting information AND offered truly practical tips. Many parenting books just tell you some advice and info without any concrete action steps. This book has a “what to do today/this week” tip in every chapter. I read a chapter or two while using the bathroom, so it was a great little frequent reminder of better parenting.
July 26, 2023
I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way it was broken out in to 50 small chapters making the information very digestible. As a new parent I felt like I learned so many things I can already begin to implement but also things that will carry throughout my daughters life. I think almost all parents and caregivers would benefit from this book. I am looking forward to look in to some of the resources that were shared as well.
August 22, 2023
A wonderful back to the roots book about how to just raise solid decent humans. It digs deep into the things we already know to be true and solidifies them. While we want to read "all the books" to figure out how to just raise good kids that are productive members of society, this book brings that all to the surface in a way that is easy to connect with. We have three children ages 3, 5 and 9.5 and it connects with all of those ages in different aspects. Would recommend!
May 31, 2023
There are two books I recommend daily in my practice as a family/child therapist. Raising Good Human (the first one) is that book. So when I saw this come up on NetGalley I was soooooooo excited! Even more excited when I opened it and saw how much more accessible the activities are.
The self-compassion content (Neff) was where this book started to shine. And it continues to bring that concept of compassion to it’s readers by normalizing having feelings and making mistakes as a parent!
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. I will be purchasing a hard copy of this book for my practice and telling every family I meet to buy this book. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book and get it early.
The self-compassion content (Neff) was where this book started to shine. And it continues to bring that concept of compassion to it’s readers by normalizing having feelings and making mistakes as a parent!
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. I will be purchasing a hard copy of this book for my practice and telling every family I meet to buy this book. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book and get it early.
August 14, 2023
This book was a valuable resource at a time I really needed it. I’m a new (ish) parent of twins who are 9 months old, now. There are definitely moments where I get overwhelmed and having this book as my side-kick gives me an extra oomph, for sure. The text’s tone is so approachable and encouraging, and the recommended skills and tasks are incredibly useful in lowering my stress in those high-intensity moments of being a parent. I definitely recommend this book to all parents out there. There is something in this book for everyone, and if we all used a new skill or two (there are 50 really easy-to-incorporate ideas in this book for a more mindful approach to parenting) goodness, the world would definitely be a better place!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!
October 1, 2023
In the back of my mind, I know what I need to do to support and guide my kids. And it helps so so much to have someone else put those thoughts into words that are actionable. This is a short listen chock full of tips that are common sense and easily accessible. Definitely worth the time and energy it takes to listen!
November 8, 2024
I read this because the mindfulness draws on the research I worked on at John's Hopkins and learned some helpful tips that help raise good humans (even adult ones) even when your own parents made all the documented mistakes. "We transmit what we don't transform"- you have to be in control before you can parent.
May 1, 2025
This was a good book, what I listened of it. The beginning was reassuring, reminding you that everyone loses their shit from time to time and that the important part is apologizing after and modeling ways to calm yourself down. stuff. It was an easy audiobook to pop in a take a walk to, until it became really repetitive, “just meditate” type stuff when I DNF’d.
October 22, 2025
I really benefited from reading "Raising Good Humans" so I was excited to find this book. I honestly find it even more helpful and more practical than the original. This covers much of the same ground but distills it down to 2-3 pages at a time of easy to parse lessons. It's a small book so I plan to keep it nearby to revisit regularly.
June 20, 2023
This book is great for first time parents with young children. Lots of helpful tips that help you keep focus on the present with your kids. I would say if your children are newborn to five, this book is beneficial to you.
July 13, 2023
As a first time mom of a Toddler, this book has been an amazing touch point and reminder on how to slow down and really connect with our independent kiddo. Very easy to read and apply to our daily lives. Highly recommend!
July 27, 2023
I found a lot of good advice in this book for being a calmer and more present parent. My son is 8 and a half, and I feel like the info is applicable. I appreciated that the chapters were short (a few pages) and to the point. They started with a relevant quote and ended with some action suggestions.
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