On our bookshelf

February 8, 2007 | Print

Becoming the Parent You Want To Be: A Sourcebook of Strategies for the First Five Years

Highlights: In Becoming the Parent You Want To Be, Laura Davis and Janis Keyser discuss parenting and children’s development by offering parents tools for understanding and supporting their families. They outline simple approaches to everyday challenges.

When almost 3 year old Wyatt showed no interest in using the toilet, Kelly read the chapter about “Toilet Learning”. She shared the highlights with Michael (who prefers Kelly’s synopses to actually reading a parenting book), and then they figured out how they wanted to start the process with Wyatt.

Lowlights: As Sandra Tsing Loh suggests in an Atlantic Monthly article, the tone may seem too touchy feely for the daily parenting urgencies and frustrations. Like many parenting books, we tend to read chapters when in need of advice, rather than front to back.

Why we like it: We don’t mind the therapy speak because the book has solid content and suggestions on a variety of situations. Also, Davis and Keyser help us get some perspective of how our family works, roles we all play, and how we can support our children’s development as individuals.

Child’s Age: Pregnancy through 5 years old.

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