How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes


Book Description

How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes is a clear, actionable, sometimes humorous (but always science-based) guide for parents on how to shape their kids into honest, kind, generous, confident, independent, and resilient people...who just might save the world one day. As an award-winning science journalist, Melinda Wenner Moyer was regularly asked to investigate and address all kinds of parenting questions: how to potty train, when and whether to get vaccines, and how to help kids sleep through the night. But as Melinda's children grew, she found that one huge area was ignored in the realm of parenting advice: how do we make sure our kids don't grow up to be assholes? On social media, in the news, and from the highest levels of government, kids are increasingly getting the message that being selfish, obnoxious and cruel is okay. Hate crimes among children and teens are rising, while compassion among teens has been dropping. We know, of course, that young people have the capacity for great empathy, resilience, and action, and we all want to bring up kids who will help build a better tomorrow. But how do we actually do this? How do we raise children who are kind, considerate, and ethical inside and outside the home, who will grow into adults committed to making the world a better place? How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes is a deeply researched, evidence-based primer that provides a fresh, often surprising perspective on parenting issues, from toddlerhood through the teenage years. First, Melinda outlines the traits we want our children to possess—including honesty, generosity, and antiracism—and then she provides scientifically-based strategies that will help parents instill those characteristics in their kids. Learn how to raise the kind of kids you actually want to hang out with—and who just might save the world.




Kid Confidence


Book Description

"A wise and realistic program for instilling genuine self-esteem in children." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Help your child cultivate real, lasting confidence! In Kid Confidence, a licensed clinical psychologist and parenting expert offers practical, evidence-based parenting strategies to help kids foster satisfying relationships, develop competence, and make choices that fit who they are and want to become. As parents, it’s heartbreaking to hear children say negative things about themselves. But as children grow older and begin thinking about the world in more complex ways, they also become more self-critical. Alarmingly, studies show that self-esteem, for many children, takes a sharp drop starting around age eight, and this decline continues into the early teen years. So, how can you turn the tide on this upsetting trend and help your child build genuine self-esteem? With this guide, you’ll learn that self-esteem isn’t about telling kids they're “special.” It’s about helping them embrace the freedom that comes with a quiet ego—a way of being in the world that isn't preoccupied with self-judgment, and instead embraces a compassionate view of oneself and others that allows for both present awareness and personal growth. When kids are less focused on evaluating and comparing themselves with others, they are freer to empathize with others, embrace learning, and connect with the values that are bigger than themselves. You’ll also discover how your child’s fundamental needs for connection, competence, and choice are essential for real self-esteem. Connection involves building meaningful and satisfying relationships that create a sense of belonging. Competence means building tangible skills. And choice is about being able to make decisions, figure out what matters, and choose to act in ways that are consistent with personal values. When children are able to fulfill these three basic needs, the question of “Am I good enough?” is less likely to come up. If your child is suffering from low self-esteem, you need a nuanced parenting approach. Let this book guide you as you help your child create unshakeable confidence and lasting well-being.




Helping Children with Low Self-Esteem


Book Description

This is a guidebook to help children who: "don't like themselves or feel there is something fundamentally wrong with them"; "have been deeply shamed"; "have received too much criticism or haven't been encouraged enough"; "let people treat them badly because they feel they don't deserve better"; "do not accept praise or appreciation because they feel they don't deserve it"; "feel defeated by life, fundamentally unimportant, unwanted or unlovable"; "bully because they think they are worthless or think they are worthless because they are bullied"; and "feel they don't belong or do not seek friends because they think no-one would want to be their friend.




Helping Children to Build Self-Esteem


Book Description

This second edition of the highly successful Helping Children to Build Self-Esteem is packed with fun and effective activities to help children develop and maintain healthy self-esteem. New and updated material has been added including a section on running parent groups alongside children's groups, as well as a brand new layout, fresh illustrations, an expanded theoretical section and extra activities. Based on the author's extensive clinical experience, this activities book will equip and support teaching staff, therapists and carers in encouraging feelings of competence and self-worth in children and their families. It is primarily designed for use with individuals and groups of children aged 7-11, but the ideas can easily be adapted for both older and younger children and children with learning difficulties. This fully photocopiable resource is invaluable for anyone looking for creative, practical ways of nurturing self-esteem in children.




Mindsets for Parents


Book Description

All parents want their children to be successful in school, sports, and extracurricular activities. But it's not just about giving your kids praise or setting them on the right direction. Research shows that success is often dependent on mindset. Hard work, perseverance, and effort are all hallmarks of a growth mindset. That's where Mindsets for Parents: Strategies to Encourage Growth Mindsets in Kids comes in. Designed to provide parents with a roadmap for developing a growth mindset home environment, this book's conversational style and real-world examples make the popular mindsets topic approachable and engaging. It includes tools for informally assessing the mindsets of both parent and child, easy-to-understand brain research, and suggested strategies and resources for use with children of any age. This book gives parents and guardians powerful knowledge and methods to help themselves and their children learn to embrace life's challenges with a growth mindset and an eye toward increasing their effort and success!




Helping Children with Low Self-Esteem & Ruby and the Rubbish Bin


Book Description

This practical guidebook, with a beautifully-illustrated storybook, enables teachers, parents and professionals to help children aged 4-12 connect with unresolved feelings affecting their behaviour. Helping Children with Low Self-Esteem is a guidebook to help children who: don't like themselves or feel there is something fundamentally wrong with them have been deeply shamed have received too much criticism or haven't been encouraged enough let people treat them badly because they feel they don't deserve better do not accept praise or appreciation because they feel they don't deserve it feel defeated by life, fundamentally unimportant, unwanted or unlovable bully because they think they are worthless or think they are worthless because they are bullied and, feel they don't belong or do not seek friends because they think no-one would want to be their friend. Ruby and the Rubbish Bin is a story for children with low self-esteem. Ruby hates herself so much that she often feels more like a piece of rubbish than a little girl. Sometimes Ruby feels so miserable that she wants to sleep and sleep and never wake up again. Then Ruby meets Dot and, over time, Dot helps Ruby to move from self-hate to self-respect. After a very important dream, and help from Dot, Ruby finds her voice and her anger, and stands up to the bullies. She makes new friends and knows what it's like to feel happy for the first time in her life.




Building Your Child's Self-Esteem


Book Description

Provides a step-by-step guide for improving children's self-esteem. Practical and hands-on, with clear and concise instructions, shows parents how to identify healthy and low self-esteem behaviors in their children. Parents will also learn how to overcome and correct unproductive habits that limit their child's performance. From developing a series of ideas for empowering children toward self-responsibility and awareness, parents will get the information needed to activate their child's potential for maximum success. Parents will learn how self-esteem manifests in children, how children with healthy and low self-esteem communicate, and how healthy and low self-esteem characteristics affect parenting skills.




Self-Esteem


Book Description

Self-esteem is essential for psychological survival. It is an emotional sine qua non - without some measure of self-worth, life can be enormously painful, with many basic needs going unmet. One of the main factors differentiating humans from other animals is the awareness of self: the ability to form an identity and then attach a value to it. In other words, you have the capacity to define who you are and then decide if you like that identity or not. The problem of self-esteem is this human capacity for judgment. It's one thing to dislike certain colors, noises, shapes, or sensations. But when you reject parts of yourself, you greatly damage the psychological structures that literally keep you alive. Judging and rejecting yourself causes enormous pain. And in the same way that you would favor and protect a physical wound, you find yourself avoiding anything that might aggravate the pain of self-rejection in any way. You take fewer social, academic, or career risks. You make it more difficult for yourself to meet people, interview for a job, or push hard for something where you might not succeed. You limit your ability to open yourself with others, express your sexuality, be the center of attention, hear criticism, ask for help, or solve problems....This book is about stopping the judgments. It's about healing the old wounds of hurt and self-rejection. How you perceive and feel about yourself can change. And when those perceptions and feelings change, the ripple effect will touch every part of your life with a gradually expanding sense of freedom. ---- Self-Esteem.




The Highly Sensitive Parent


Book Description

From the world-renowned authority and internationally bestselling author of The Highly Sensitive Person, comes an indispensable guide for the significant number of parents who are unusually attuned to their children. The Highly Sensitive Parent is the only book of its kind, written specifically for parents who think deeply about every issue affecting their kids, experiencing strong emotions as a result, and face unique stressors that do not impact parents without high sensitivity. Parenting is the most valuable and rewarding job in the world, and also one of the most challenging. This is especially true for highly sensitive people. The good news is that sensitivity can also be a parent's most valuable asset, leading to increased personal joy and a closer, happier relationship with their child. Dr Elaine Aron, world-renowned author of the classic The Highly Sensitive Person and other bestselling books on the trait of high sensitivity, has written an indispensable guide for these parents. Drawing on extensive research and her own experience, she helps highly sensitive parents identify and address the implications of their heightened sensitivity, offering: - A self-examination test to help parents identify their level of sensitivity - Tools to cope with over-stimulation - Advice on dealing with the negative feelings that can surround parenting - Ways to manage the increased social stimulation and interaction that comes with having a child - Techniques to deal with shyness around other parents - Insight into the five big problems that face highly sensitive parents in relationships - and how to work through them Highly sensitive people have the potential to be not just good parents but great ones. Practical yet warm and positive, this groundbreaking guide will show parents how to build confidence, awareness, and essential coping skills so that they - and their child - can thrive on every stage of the parenting journey.




Growing Friendships


Book Description

From psychologist and children's friendships expert Eileen Kennedy-Moore and parenting and health writer Christine McLaughlin comes a social development primer that gives kids the answers they need to make and keep friends. Friendship is complicated for kids. Almost every child struggles socially at some time, in some way. Having an argument with a friend, getting teased, or even trying to find a buddy in a new classroom...although these are typical problems, they can be very painful. And friendships are never about just one thing. With research-based practical solutions and plenty of true-to-life examples--presented in more than 200 lighthearted cartoons--Growing Friendships is a toolkit for both girls and boys as they make sense of the social order around them. Children everywhere want to fit in with a group, resist peer pressure, and be good sports--but even the most socially adept children struggle at times. But after reading this highly illustrated guide on their own or with a caring adult, kids everywhere will be well equipped to face any friendship challenges that come their way.