What Great Parents Do

September 1, 2016

Clinical psychologist and parenting educator Reischer delivers a back-to-basics look at parenting via simple, action-oriented tips and a big-picture perspective. Underlying all of her advice are the "ABCs" of great parenting: acceptance, boundaries, and consistency. Organized by sections such as "Great Parents Cultivate Self Awareness," strategies are accompanied by descriptions of the technique's psychological impact (e.g., people who have developed self-awareness "tend to be more empathetic"). A "try this" section rounds out the volume and provides information that ranges from self-reflection for parents to sample dialogs to tools for avoiding typical outbursts or meltdowns. VERDICT Covering everything from discipline to encouraging curiosity, Reischer's gentle yet firm model is simple and powerful. Parents who read one tip per day will have a sound rubric for child rearing through the years.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2016
Psychologist Reischer's parenting style might be best described as evidence-based. In her parenting workshops and this book, she distills research on children's social and emotional development into a set of best parenting practices. Each of the book's 75 strategies is presented in a separate, numbered chapter with a descriptive title (e.g., Great parents give fair warning, Great parents are consistent ), making it easy for busy parents to spot the ones that best fit a given situation. In addition, the chapters contain extensive (sometimes to the point of being distracting) cross-references to related and complementary strategies. Reischer summarizes psychological research and her clinical experience in a simple, straightforward manner mostly free of jargon. She is at her best in the Try This section at the end of each chapter, which includes real-life examples and step-by-step instructions for applying the strategy in a challenging parenting situation. Like many authors of parenting books, Reischer wrote the one book she was unable to find when her first child was born. She has ensured that parents of young children no longer have that problem.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)