On the whole my children are pretty good natured and listen pretty well. There are times when each of them can be very defiant and disrespectful. I was lamenting an extremely frustrating day to a friend of mine. A day where the kids were defiant and I was less than patient and definitely not the kind of mom I strive to be. My friend recommended this book to me as a good tool. It took me considerably more than 10 days to go through it. I found each chapter full of "food for thought". It was not what I had expected at all.

This book was all about causes and effect. It was about modifying parental behaviors and expectations. Not letting any consequences slide, or letting the children be disrepectful, but more about some of the things that lead up to a blow up and how to stay calm in response to said blow ups and poor behaviors. I wound up reading and thinking about each chapter for a few days while I tried to implement some of the helpful tools that I wanted to use. Then I moved on to the next chapter and went back over the previous chapter. I used plenty of highlighter and took copious notes (you would think I was back in school or something!!), but I believe that it has helped our family tremendously. My kids still act up and act out - they are still kids!, but I have better tools in my toolbelt to help me deal with these outburts in a calm manner (I wish I could be calm all the time!). I found this book truly helpful and wanted to pass along this little tip in case anyone else might need it.