Product Description

The parenting classic, now revised with new chapters, checklists, and information about today's most pressing issues regarding our children

This bestselling guide rejects "quick-fix" solutions and focuses on helping kids develop their own self-discipline by owning up to their mistakes, thinking through solutions, and correcting their misdeeds while leaving their dignity intact. Barbara Coloroso shows these principles in action through dozens of examples -- from sibling rivalry to teenage rebellion; from common misbehaviors to substance abuse and antisocial behavior. She also explains how to parent strong-willed children, effective alternatives to time-outs, bribes, and threats, and how to help kids resolve disputes and serious injustices such as bullying.

Filled with practical suggestions for handling the ordinary and extraordinary tribulations of growing up, kids are worth it! helps you help your children grow into responsible, resilient, resourceful adults -- not because you tell them to, but because they want to.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13944 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Released on: 2002-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Coloroso urges parents to teach children to take responsibility for their actions.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Barbara Coloroso's philosophy of parenting supports the idea that using a combination of compassion and respect when disciplining a child will teach limits without damaging the child's or the parent's self-esteem. Throughout the six tapes, Coloroso tackles some of the most difficult topics, from how to teach a toddler the meaning of "no," to handling a troublesome teen. Coloroso's voice and presentation are comforting and easy to listen to. She manages to deliver eight hours of advice without "preaching" her philosophy, making her message palatable and successful. E.W.S. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Coloroso says that there are three types of parents--Jellyfish, Brickwall, and Backbone. The first two muck it up royally by being too wishy-washy or too firm. The parent with a backbone, however, can be stern when necessary and provide structure yet have the flexibility that children and families need. Coloroso applies these models to a variety of parenting situations, from toilet training to curfew setting. Like the Cosby show, it looks and sounds so easy when the script is already written, but there are plenty of good ideas here for keeping parents' sanity intact. Portions of the book are taken directly from the author's excellent video Winning at Parenting as well as from her popular lecture series. Denise Perry Donavin

Customer Reviews

Respect is worth it
I read this for my thesis on classroom management. I actually didn't read the whole book, but all the relevent information to teaching. The book was a little scattered and redundant at times (I actallu read the exact same paragraph in 2 different chapters, deja vu), but overall there were many wonderful points. In the classroom I have noticed many teacher offer rewards for their student to do anything. The result is a bunch of students who won't do anything without a reward. However, I don't believe this is a "new" problem as Coloroso points out. I do like how she handled it by saying feedback and compliments are important, but your child or student doesn't need to be praised for every little thing they do.
If you ar are a parent who already beleives that you are correct about everything and then don't read this book. Or do, and hopefull someof it will rub off eventually.

3.5 stars for some useful ideas, preachiness, and a lot of tangents
I'd like to give this book 3.5 stars. I bought three parenting books at the same time from Amazon: Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles; How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk; and Kids Are Worth It! and read them in that order. When I first started Kids Are Worth It!, I was only 10 pages into it and put it down for a couple of weeks. I had a hard time with the intro because it felt condescending and harsh at times. (Ironically, it was like I was being lectured by a parent.) I understand that approach might work well for the author when she speaks publicly, but in print it feels like a turn-off. I was determined to read the book though, so I picked it up again and started feeling more positive toward the book when it explained the three different types of families: Brick-wall, jellyfish, and backbone.

Some people object to this book because they feel there are more than three types of families, but the book acknowledges that some families will be a "patchwork of all three" (p. 39). This makes sense to me because I grew up in a family that falls mostly in the brick-wall category but has some features of a jellyfish-b. At times the author does make it sound like all brick-wall (or jellyfish) families have the same exact traits she writes about, but that would be impossible because each family is unique. The descriptions of brick-wall and jellyfish families are general and should only be used as guidelines.

Somewhere around the middle of the book, it starts feeling a little random because sections start popping up about all kinds of stuff. A lot of it is helpful, but some of it may only apply to a certain group of parents (like the section on potty training). The index can assist the reader in finding specific topics, but not all, as "potty training" or "diapers" doesn't appear in the index but is mentioned in the book.

There are sections of the book that I find hard to believe will work with kids. I don't have a child that's old enough to try the ideas on, so I can't confirm if they work. But one example is "The Game and the Sit." Two children have a fight over a game so the backbone parent tells the children they must sit together on the couch and neither can get up until they both give each other permission to get up. That's it. There's not much else the author says about resolving the situation. I have a hard time envisioning two arguing children cooperatively sitting on the couch together, agreeing that they will give the other permission to get up, and ending their argument. Maybe it happens, but I have a hard time imagining that it's that simple.

I'm glad I read Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles first because I felt that it was an easier read and focused more on relationships between parents and children with far fewer tangents. Kids Are Worth It! covers a ton of issues between kids and parents, some of them without much detail and others with some helpful pointers. Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles helped me develop my parenting direction and Kids Are Worth It! added some additional practical ideas to the mix.

Required reading for anyone who Parent's!
This book is by far the best parenting book I've ever read. The author provides concrete examples comparing parenting styles including the "jellyfish parent" in contrast to the "brickwall," ever encouraging parent's to strike that middle of the road or "Backbone" parent. As a Special Ed teacher who has spent 23 years working with kids with behavioral and emotional disorders, I have come to the realization that so much havoc is wreaked by bad parenting. This book should be part of the package that hospital's provide when they pack you away with your new baby! A godsend for parent's who are determined to do a good job at teaching their children reasonable boundaries!!