Saturday, June 8, 2019

How to Talk So Teens Will Listen & Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish


I have teenagers, well one teenager and one preteen, but I want very much to raise them well and as Hermione says, "When in doubt, go to the library." I haven't read parenting books since I had babies, but I thought I would see what I could learn about teens. When I came across How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, I was plenty interested. Communicating with teens is no easy task so I was happy to read all about it.

This book is very short and compact- it only took me a day to get through it- but it has some good advice: Listen to your children, respect them as individual people. The most valuable comment I read was that the way we deal with the little things (bad table manners, messy bedrooms) will lay the groundwork for all the big things (drugs, sex). This book doesn't imply that we let our children do whatever they'd like, but that as we are redirecting their behavior, it is possible to communicate in a way that is respectful rather than degrading.

Unfortunately, this book felt outdated and a little cheesy. I don't feel like I learned much, but since it was a library loaner and didn't take up too much of my time, I'm not too worried about it.

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