Parenting Resource Reviews

Facing a new parenting challenge? Looking for some inspiration to guide your parenting?
You may wish to consider some of the reviews below.

Thanks to the efforts of some avid readers within our congregation we are able to provide you with these insights into some current parenting resources.

Please note that these resources have been chosen for review simply because they have been useful to the individual who has provided the review. Therefore the reviews reflect the individual views of the reviewer and may not necessarily reflect the views of other members or staff of Hope Valley Uniting Church.

If you wish to submit a review to add to this growing resource, please contact Pastor David Green c/o david.green@hopevalleyuc.org.au

Review 1:
"On Becoming Pottywise for Toddlers: A Developmental Readiness Approach to Potty Training"

by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam
Published by Parent-Wise Solutions, Inc.
(A division of the Charleston Publishing Group, Inc.)
ISBN 1-932740-14-7
Price $16.95

General subject matter - Potty Training
Target audience - Parents of toddlers who are seeking to toilet train their child/ren.

I would highly recommend this book to parents as a simple yet highly effective tool in achieving the successful (and efficient) toilet training of a toddler.
Although it is written by Christian authors, it is primarily practical in nature and would therefore appeal to all parents, regardless of their religious beliefs.

The book looks to the developmental readiness cues of children as the starting point of potty training and the authors believe that readiness is the prerequisite for successful training. The book helps parents in three main ways.

Firstly, it helps them learn to recognise the optimal window for potty training a toddler. Secondly, it helps them learn the most effective way to teach a toddler the potty training process and thirdly, it helps them learn how to keep a toddler motivated to keep using the potty on their own.Additionally, it offers answers to many common scenarios and questions which arise as part of the training process.

The book is very thorough in its approach yet easy to read. The authors are very well respected and qualified in this area and have also written numerous other parenting resources. If you read this book on potty training, I believe (from experience) that you do not need to read any others on the subject!

By Talitha Watson

Review 2:

Father Time: Making time For Your Children

by Daniel Petre
Published by Jane Curry Publishing
ISBN 9781920727178
Price $19.95 (approx)

General subject matter – Benefits of fathers spending time with their children
Target audience - Fathers with children (aged from birth to teens)

Whilst this book is not written from a Christian perspective I would still recommend this book for dads. The book challenges fathers to examine their work/father time closely and to rebalance where required. It also offers a number of tools and tips in this process. This text is particularly relevant to fathers who have a fairly demanding job.

The author is able to speak with authority on the subject given his credentials and offers a balanced view on the benefits of being an “available father”. Petre esteems the view that great father time with children (with the resultant happiness) is the main purpose of life rather than finding our main pleasure and identity in work.

The book is written in a style that is engaging and easy to read.
Overall, certainly worth reading for dads (if they can find the time to do so!!)

By Geoff Watson

Review 3:

”The Five Love Languages of Children”
by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell

General subject matter – Finding the best way to communicate love and discipline to your children
Target audience - Parents with children (aged from birth to teens)

Having read Gary Chapman's “The Five Love Languages” and having found the insights and concepts very helpful in my own marriage, I was keen to read “The Five Love Languages of Children”. With three young children, I am happy to read anything that may help our busy days run more smoothly and lovingly.

In the “Five Love Languages of Children”, the authors maintain that it is not enough that parents love their children deeply. The five love languages are physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, gifts and acts of service. While children can and should be loved in all of these languages, children tend to have a preferred love language, a language that helps them perceive more clearly and surely just how much their parent loves them.

While I found I could apply the concept of “love languages” to my marriage fairly easily, I found it much harder to apply these concepts to my parenting. I suspect this book might be more helpful to those parents with older children who have developed stronger love language preferences and who can articulate more clearly what they are.

I also found the section linking love languages and discipline surprising.

While the love languages concept is based on the insights gained over years of clinical work with children and adults, and sounds plausible, the authors do not present any empirical evidence that people have “primary love languages” at all. Perhaps there are many children (and adults) who respond equally to all love languages. And perhaps there are other love languages that this book does not deal with.

While I didn't find this book as relevant as I'd hoped, it does highlight the importance of making sure our children feel our unconditional love for them.

The book gave me some new ideas, and has challenged me to demonstrate my love to my children in more varied and imaginative ways. If I can manage to work out what my children's love languages are, and they happen to match up to one of the five described in this book, then I'll be all set!

By Narelle Robertson