This book takes us through the emotional developmental stages we all experience and instructs us in maintaining the connection with our children as they move through these stages. The authors help us to understand and experience for ourselves the connection between past emotional hurts and present functioning. It is helpful to understand that where we get stuck in parenting is an indicator of where we were also hurt and blocked in our own emotional development. Once we know where the block is, we can do something about it that results not only in becoming a more effective parent but more functional adults in general. This book is for parents of children between 2 and 12.
Some kids are cooperative and some are testers.
For some situations we need to stop behaviors and for others we need to get certain desired behaviors started. How to do this in various situations is discussed. Parents are warned to recognize their own emotional part in a situation and not bring their own baggage into the interaction with the teenager. Steps to improve relationships between parents and teenagers are discussed. Roles for relating to an adolescent's problem range from the least intrusive to more intrusive depending on the seriousness of the problem.