Description
Product Description
This book teaches frustrated, stressed-out parents that selectively ignoring certain behaviors can actually inspire positive changes in their kids.
With all the whining, complaining, begging, and negotiating, parenting can seem more like a chore than a pleasure. Dr. Catherine Pearlman, syndicated columnist and one of America’s leading parenting experts, has a simple yet revolutionary solution: Ignore It!
Dr. Pearlman’s four-step process returns the joy to child rearing. Combining highly effective strategies with time-tested approaches, she teaches parents when to selectively look the other way to withdraw reinforcement for undesirable behaviors. Too often we find ourselves bargaining, debating, arguing and pleading with kids. Instead of improved behavior parents are ensuring that the behavior will not only continue but often get worse. When children receive no attention or reward for misbehavior, they realize their ways of acting are ineffective and cease doing it. Using proven strategies supported by research, this book shows parents how to:
- Avoid engaging in a power struggle
- Stop using attention as a reward for misbehavior
- Use effective behavior modification techniques to diminish and often eliminate problem behaviors
Overflowing with wisdom, tips, scenarios, frequently asked questions, and a lot of encouragement, Ignore It! is the parenting program that promises to return bliss to the lives of exasperated parents.
Review
"Dr. Pearlman's book offers parenting advice that is effective in every situation. Chock-full of practical applications, this book will help you ease out of those challenging situations every parent faces."
—Dr. Shefali Tsabary, clinical psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of The Conscious Parent and The Awakened Family
"I ask three things of the books I read. I want to learn something, I want to laugh, and, when a book is really special, I get to forge a personal connection with a writer for as long as I turn the pages. Catherine Pearlman has given me all three in this book, and much more. She’s given me a resource I will refer back to over and over again, both as a writer and a parent."
—Jessica Lahey, Author, New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed
"Fun, insightful, straightforward advice that can really make your family life happier."
—KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times Well Family Columnist
About the Author
Dr. Catherine Pearlman is the founder of The Family Coach, a private practice specializing in helping families resolve everyday problems related to discipline, sleep, and sibling rivalry, among other issues. She is the proud parent of a son in elementary school and a daughter in middle school. Her syndicated Dear Family Coach column has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and many regional parenting magazines. She has appeared on Today and her advice has been featured in Parenting, Men's Health, CNN.com, and The Huffington Post. Dr. Pearlman is a licensed clinical social worker who has been working with children and families for more than twenty years. She is an assistant professor of social work at Brandman University and received a PhD in social welfare from Yeshiva University and a masters of social work from New York University.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
IGNORE MY KIDS? ARE YOU CRAZY?
Whenever I counsel parents to ignore their children, I receive one of two responses. Roughly half look at me with a tilted head and an expression similar to the one my dog, Norma, makes when she isn’t sure what I am saying. They say something like, “Um, what do you mean, ignore them?” I repeat my thoughts about ignoring all of the annoying or testing behaviors, and the parents start to wonder if I am a bad family coach. Why on earth would they ignore their children? It feels counterintuitive. Bad behavior doesn’t just go away if you ignore it.
Well, actuall