The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Five Steps to Help Kids Create and Sustain Lifelong Joy Author: Edward M. Hallowell Md | Language: English | ISBN:
B000FC1H9G | Format: EPUB
The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness: Five Steps to Help Kids Create and Sustain Lifelong Joy Description
Here, at last, is a book brimming with the good news of raising children—the basic reassuring news about happiness and unconditional love, about enduring family connections and kids who grow up right. Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., father of three and a clinical psychiatrist, has thought long and hard about what makes children feel good about themselves and the world they live in. Now, in
The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, Dr. Hallowell shares his findings with all of us who care about children.
As Dr. Hallowell argues, we don’t need statistical studies or complicated expert opinions to raise children. What we
do need is love, wonder, and the confidence to trust our instincts. This inspiring book outlines a 5-step plan that all parents can use in giving their children the gift of happiness that will last a lifetime. Connection, play, practice, mastery, and recognition: as fundamental as these five concepts are, they hold the key to raising children with healthy self-esteem, moral awareness, and spiritual values. Dr. Hallowell explores each step in depth and shows how they work together to foster trust, respect, and joy.
Privilege, wealth, and expensive “extras” are
not necessary for happiness—there are many stories here of children who have overcome poverty, abandonment, and shocking deprivation to find true fulfillment. Dr. Hallowell encourages us as parents to reconnect with the moments in our own childhoods that made a difference; he explores the impact of genetics and environmental factors on the inner workings of a child’s mind; and he discusses how activities like team sports, community service, religious observance, and household chores can foster a child’s sense of mastery.
Like the works of T. Berry Brazelton and Benjamin Spock,
The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness is infused with the wisdom and humanity of a doctor who truly loves and understands children. Writing with the warmth of a friend and the authority of an expert, Dr. Hallowell gives us a book at once practical and exuberant, joyous and informative, eye-opening and reassuring. Ultimately, this book is a celebration of childhood and of the magic that happens between parents and the children they love.
From the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 493 KB
- Print Length: 256 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0345442326
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000FC1H9G
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,899 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
This is an excellent book, which shows that in childhood you plant the seeds for adult happiness. It gives concrete suggestions about what to do for your children in order to improve their odds of becoming happy adults.
A few things struck me in particular: the idea of flow, that we are happiest when we are in activities that we get so wrapped up in that we forget ourselves, the concept that children need to learn how to fail, and how to cope with failure, that being bored is an opportunity, you needn't fill up every minute of your child's time, or orchestrate their play.
I'd recommend it to anyone with children, or anyone, such as teachers, that deal with children. Even an unhappy adult, might find out that they have the seeds of happiness within them, they just need some care to make them grow.
By K. E Hart
There are a lot of things American parents think they need for their child to grow up to be a happy adult:
. An elite education.
. An endless number of enriching, exciting experiences.
. A personal space outfitted with the latest....clothes, technology, furnishings.
. A continual flow of positive reinforcement.
In fact, we are all striving to give our kids everything we felt we didn't have...but in the process, as this book so eloquently elaborates, we aren't giving them many of the things we had naturally in our childhoods which we never valued.
. A feeling a community...be it extended family, organized religion, or ethnic identification. Being connected to others in a positive way is one of the elements which has fallened by the wayside of 21st century life.
. Mastery of something "real"...not mastery of a video game but the process of genuine mastery of something...be it gardening, soccer, reading, cleaning out the garage...the whole process of finding something daunting, chosing to practice despite obstacles..and finally that feeling of "flow" when a sense of mastery is achieved.
. Flow. Free time, free thought, free truly being in a moment.
As adult we find ourselves striving for a sense of completion through spending more, consuming more, doing more....and we try to create happy adults by giving our child the same...more stuff, more "help", more dislocation.
A lot of this book is asking us to slow down, appreciate the now with our kids, let them fail and be there to encourage them, but not to "fix it" for them.
Particularly for parents who feel that their kids can never pack their Harvard applications too soon, this book is a declaration of independence from that thinking.
By Nina Abbott
VINE VOICE
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