I've been having a lot of conversations around parenting recently - I suppose since so many of my friends are having kiddos! My Mom, Leela is a lifelong humanraiser and inspired this list as she alerted me to Reading Magic at her recent 60th birthday celebration. Of course, the book that Leela writes someday will be on it as well! At Mom's birthday, another friend Louiva Puffer recommended a book which I've been enjoying. Another amazing parent I know, Patrick Talley (aka the Talleyman), is working on his forthcoming book, Divorced Dad Rules, and it will be a great addition as well. It's on being a divorced parent and still doing a great job if/when it happens. Having known Patrick for 13 years and just celebrating his daughter Alyssa's high school graduation last weekend, I can attest to his incredible parental capabilities. While geared to other divorced dads, it will, no doubt, have insights to offer to all parents. My friend Barry Thornton describes his process as helping kids become great decision makers, an opninon that was shared by Josh Baer, a dear friend and bootstrap entrepreneur whose first kid is on the way.
I've also been thinking about this topic a lot in the context of bootstrapping and the recent addition of the Matrix stage to the process. July 2008 marks the completion of a 5yr (ha! lifelong more like) investigation into bootstrapping. It seems to me that if parents can Awaken their kids to their unique talents and passions and help them say "Yes!" to their hero's journey, a HUGE part of the parenting challenge is accomplished. Now just HOW that gets accomplished is a whole other ball of wax!
Here's my very short list of Parenting Books on amazon. If you have others you would recommend, please let me know!
2 comments:
I have two books to add to your list.
Dan Markim was a Thursday speaker at our school. He served as a consultant/negotiator for Warner Bros. for years. He said he had learned all his negotiating skills from a book called:
1) How to Talk to Kids so they will listen and listen so they will talk.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-Will-Listen/dp/0380811960
The point is to frame conversations, to show that we are actually listening to our customers, our spouses and/or kids with our facial expressions and eyes, to ask questions to understand their perspective before we come to any conclusions about the discussion, negotiation etc.
2) Sam I am is the other book.
My prof. had invited a bunch of his friends to his house and asked each of them to bring one book that they had learned from the most. A friend who was also the top dog Marketing and Sales Exec brought along with him: Sam I am!
Its my youngest son's favorite Dr. Suess book and I often humor myself reminiscing about it when I am trying to stay focused about differentiating our company in the market. The point of this book is: customers will say no until we do our best to find "fit". So its not a matter of "selling" anything, just a matter of finding the right fit.
Somehow, my kids have turned out just great. They're well adjusted, confident, independent and get along with each other very well.
Besides my wife, I credit the book "Redirecting Your Children's Behavior" with this success. This books approach was very unexpected to me. For example, it recommends that parents not interrupt fights between siblings.
It gave me power by asking me to treat my kids with the same respect I would give an adult.
It was very helpful to read the book while taking the associated course, which I'm pleased to see is still available in Austin from the Redirection Connection Center:
http://lburl.com/jijrf
Tell Tammy hello from the Masseys.
I've been thankful for it for years.
Find the book here on Amazon:
http://lburl.com/fikkg
Best regards,
Brian Massey
Post a Comment