Our Smart Baby

Review: Kids Are Worth It!: Giving Your Child the Gift
of Inner Discipline by Barbara Coloroso

All in all, I like this book. As always, you take what
you agree with and leave the rest. I *do not* like the
sleep advice. Please don’t ever lock your kids out of
your room. And remember… discipline comes from the
Latin word “disciplinare” which means “to teach”.

Barb, as I humbly call her in my mind, breaks parents
down into 3 basic categories: Jellyfish, Brickwall,
Backbone. Pretty self-explanatory. The Jellyfish
parent sets no boundaries and basically does no
disciplining. The Brickwall parent is the polar
opposite. Their word is the law. There will be no
discussions whatsoever. No is usually the first thing
out of their mouth. The Backbone parent is in the
middle ground. They try to be fair, but firm. To lead
and teach their children that elusive “gift of inner
discipline”.

This book is basically about natural consequences.
This is our parenting style. Is it easy? No, not
really. But, more about that later this week. Back to
the book… Barb teaches that parenting with love and
respect for your child is the only way to go. She
advocates teaching a child *how* to think, not *what*
to think. This is huge! You will learn how to help
your kids take responsibility for their actions and
teach them how to learn from their mistakes.

It is geared more toward parents with a little older
children than mine, but the principles are still the
same. You can certainly mold the basics she teaches to
work with toddlers. I honestly can’t recommend this
enough. Except, like I said, the sleep advice is so
far off for us. There are a few things that we will do
differently, but on the whole this is an excellent
discipline and parenting book.

By Danica Bailey