A book review

I am sure I have mentioned before, but I am a huge fan of audio books. I love that they work double duty – entertainment as I drive and, well, just entertainment.  I turn my audible subscription off and on when I am on a reading kick and I also will check out audiobooks from my library’s app (Overdrive for you locals) and play them through my car’s Bluetooth. 

Anyway, I wanted to share some recent book hits and misses.

First, let’s talk about the hit – Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky Bailey. I found this author through a friend who liked her page on FB – Conscious Discipline. She always has some practical tips, so I decided to buy the book.

Wow. The first chapter had me hooked. Basically, much of the book is common sense, but we only know how to discipline based off how we are disciplined.  The premise of the book is we are who are children emulate – if we want our children to value activity, we have to show them that we go to the gym, if we want them to be good stewards to humanity, we have to act it out for them.

One of the first examples in the book was that when teaching our children to share, if they take something out of another child’s hand, we typically pull it away from them and give it back to the other child, which actually just reinforces the taking of objects from another person. Sigh. Le obvious.

If I had to get down to the nitty gritty of the book, it is basically about using positive phrases for getting your child to do something like telling them to sit on their bottom vs. don’t stand in the chair because they only hear the action they are not supposed to do (stand in the chair).

And when telling your child not to hit, push, etc., follow up and practice with them on the action you want them to take.  For example, you say pushing hurts, if you want the object from your friend ask her please, if she says no, get another toy to play with. I started it with Emmy immediately and she really gets it.  As mentioned in my previous post, she knows that when she is angry and frustrated she can’t hit people (not that she always does this), but has started hitting the walls and other objects, so we are now working with her on appropriate ways to get out her aggression…and maybe hit a pillow. I think this would honestly help the earlier you start with a child. I think starting this with a 3-4 year old would be a challenge because they likely won’t listen.  Ha!

Another big idea was to not ask your kids things – just simply state what you want them to do. Don’t ask if they want to brush their teeth and have them say no and then begin an argument about how they actually, indeed, need to do that. Instead tell them it is time to brush their teeth.

Of course, there is a chapter about giving them two choices…but we all know how that goes. Oh, or is that just here?

The other premise of the book is that kids actually cannot push our buttons. They aren’t capable of it, especially small ones.  She gets into the details of it in the book, but I could see what she was saying, even though it is a huge practice of patience:).

The book is really great at the beginning, slow in the middle and picks up again at the end, but it made so much sense to me and has been a very positive way to discipline Emmy without resorting to yelling at her to make a point (ha – thus far).  So, I highly recommend it.

As for book misses, I can’t begin to express my disappointment in one of my favorite author’s, Emily Giffin. Her new book, The One and Only, came out in May and I downloaded it immediately.  If you have ever read any of her other books, they are all very layered and really make you think, but are still light at the same time.  This one had none of that for me.

Sort of spoiler alert: This book is about a girl who is a football fanatic and falls for both the star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys (yeah, right) and her best friend’s father who is the famed coach of a made-up Texas college. Let’s just say that I had the most difficult time wrapping my head around her falling for her best friend’s dad. It would be one thing if they were best friend’s from later in life and then she fell for him, but no, she has known him since she was born. Wrap your head around that one. I just couldn’t imagine any attraction on either one’s part. And the book really lacked substance for me. I hope Emily does better next time.  Anyone else read it?  Was I the only one completely disappointed (and grossed out)?

Would love to know any of your favorite books to put on my playlist! I just downloaded the new Think Like a Freak book, so I will let you know what I think of that one. 

Also, as an aside, if you have satellite radio, The Today Show is now on 108. I can’t get enough, so my book listening is waning in the morning! As a tip, if you have Sirius (or want it), never pay full price for it. Right now they have a 6-month special for $25. http://www.retailmenot.com/view/shop.siriusxm.com?c=4916637.  I always threaten to cancel at renewal and they renew me for $4 – $5 a month. As an added bonus, Emmy loves Kidz Bop radio.