Kids don’t come with manuals. While there is certainly no shortage of books on parenting and children, I thought “Family Centered Parenting” takes in interesting look at the family unit overall and how the needs of both the parent and the child come together. I know it can be a tough to balance your own needs and wants as a parent while wanting to do what is best for your kids. This book provides a framework that the whole family can work within. It is very structured and practical, though depending on the ages your children, it may not be a bit ambitious to implement in full.
One thing I tried to put in place from this book was a family mission statement. At school, the kids know they need to be “Kind, Reliable, and Safe,” so I thought it would be easy for them to adapt the same basic guidelines for our family. Success was limited because there was no buy in. My kids just weren’t interested. However, we did have a family meeting and the kids voluntarily drew up rules of our own “Family Constitution,” which has worked for the most part so far. So even if we don’t adapt the whole program, I think there are still good bits to take from this book and see if we can fold more of it into our family over time.
Read it for yourself and see how it fits in your family, or perhaps how your family fits in it. You can pick up your own copy at Family Centered Parenting. Heads up, there are some parts you’ll want to highlight, things to take notes on, and even a few assessments for you right in the book, so it may be tricky to do that in a copy from the library.
