Outwitting Toddlers

The tone of this book is lighthearted, but the authors offer solid "been there, done that" advice. It does not advocate a one size fits all philosophy, pointing out that children respond differently based on personality, mood, and maturity. Rather, it offers multiple techniques to surprise or entice your child into doing things YOUR way. The book is practical - for example, in answer to the question, "Is there any way to get a toddler to eat more neatly?" they respond "Not really," but offer several ways to minimize the cleanup effort for yourself. The authors seem to stress that toddlers aren't miniature adults or even tiny teenagers. Their brains, while learning at an amazing speed, have their own way of processing and communicating and you really have to think on their level if you're going to keep the peace in your house. You can't reason with a 2-year-old and you can't apply punishments that may work on an older child and expect them to have the same effect. The book is organized into chapters - about food, new situations, clothing battles, toilet training, etc. - and features a question-and-answer section as well as real-life parent sidebars in each chapter. I truly enjoyed reading the book. It's not going to make your child perfect, but if you are looking for new answers to age-old frustrations, you just might find some that are helpful. I did.

I've been eyeing this book up at the library for awhile and decided to give it a shot. I'm really glad that I did. This book answered questions that I've had a hard time finding answers too; how to deal with a toddler suddenly hating a bath for one. The book is broken up into various topic, eating, traveling, safety, etc. This book is very helpful if you're looking for answers to questions that you can't always find the answers to.