Loving Each One Best - A Caring and Practical Approach to Raising Siblings

Informationen zum Autor Nancy Samalin , the founder and director of Parent Guidance Workshops, presents lectures and workshops to thousands of parents and professionals worldwide. She is the author, with Catherine Whitney, of  Loving Each One Best . Catherine Whitney  is the coauthor of numerous bestselling books on health and wellness. Klappentext All those baby boomers who have embarked on the journey of raising their second and third children have found themselves left in the lurch by existing child care literature. Now child care expert Nancy Samalin! who has earned a reputation for her forgiving and empowering approach to parenting! brings her inspiring outlook to this guide to the pitfalls and rewards of parenting two or more children. Parents who consider themselves pros after the first child are in for a surprise when the encounter life after the second child is born and beyond. Suddenly their world is an exhausting haze of competing demands! perpetual squabbling! sibling rivalry! complaints of unfairness and "you love him more" (and sometimes you do)! unrelenting stress! and a pervasive sense of guilt and inadequacy. Culled from her years of workshops with hundreds of parents! Nancy Samalin shares the trials and joys of parenthood and provides specific advice on steering your way through the parenting rapids. This is a must-read for today's harried parents. Chapter 1   From One to a Handful     Parents teach in the toughest school in the world—the school for making people. You are the board of ed, the principal, the teacher, and the janitor all rolled into two … and there is no general agreement on the curriculum. You are on duty, or at least on call, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for at least 18 years for each child you have. —Virginia Satir, The New Peoplemaking   My son Eric was only three months old when I realized I might be pregnant again. My initial reaction was “I can’t believe this is happening!” Full of apprehension, I made an appointment with my doctor for a pregnancy test.   But a funny thing happened in the doctor’s office. When he told me that, yes, I was pregnant, instead of feeling despair, I was elated. I knew I had wanted two children, although I’d never expected them to be so close in age. Yet, suddenly it seemed like a great idea. Now we’d be more than just two adults and a child. We’d be a “whole” family. As I prepared for the arrival of my second child, I often found myself daydreaming about the way it would be, conjuring up heartwarming pictures of happy harmony. I imagined my children as loving companions, lifelong buddies who would grow up together, share secrets, develop fierce loyalties, be friends through thick and thin. The prospect brought me an intense anticipation of pride and pleasure.   But as is so often the case, reality was very different from the rosy ideal. I was completely caught off guard by the challenge of raising two sons—the extra pressures, the exhaustion, the feeling that I had to mediate every argument, the fear that they would never love one another. I hated the shrill sound of my voice barking orders, nagging, pleading for peace. The harmonious world of my dreams was replaced by the war zone of our daily life together.   Of course, I blamed myself. Surely, if I had been a more competent parent, I would be able to instill in them the desire to be more loving toward one another, and teach them how to end their fighting and bickering. I spent a lot of time feeling inadequate, but had I only been more knowledgeable about the normal dynamics between brothers, I would have realized that rivalry, conflict, and competition were inevitable, and they could even be a healthy part of a sibling relationship.   Contrary to my worst fears, their childhood conflicts did not set Eric and Todd up for a lifetime of hard feelings. Just the opposite. My...

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Nancy Samalin
• Edition: Bantam Books USA
• Langues: Anglais
• Format d'édition: Livre Broché
• Sortie: 06.01.1997
• EAN: 9780553378344
• ISBN: 978-0-553-37834-4
• Pages: 224
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 211 mm x 12 mm
• Catégorie: Livres de conseils > Santé