Not yelling at kids? Is it possible?
By Atara Beck
Tribune Correspondent
Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Soft cover, $24.95 Cdn.
Many parents in the Toronto community familiar with this city’s well-known family therapist, Sarah Chana Radcliffe, were thrilled to hear of her latest book, Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice. It is indeed exciting that the knowledge and advice of this respected author of five books on Jewish family life will reach well beyond the Jewish world with this jewel of a book published by HarperCollins.
Radcliffe has been asked to speak at a number of venues during the past few months. At a recent evening for parents of children making the transition from pre-school to Grade 1 at the Associated Hebrew Schools, she offered useful strategies for dealing with the inevitable stress that goes along with parenting.
“The more anger you use, the worse the child’s problems will be when he’s older,” she said. According to Radcliffe, parents who acknowledge their children’s feelings facilitate emotional intelligence. For instance, if a child says, “I don’t like school,” it’s better to respond with a “Yes, I know it’s hard,” rather than saying, “It’s not so bad.” By recognizing the child’s feelings, she explained, you strengthen the emotional bond and his ability to develop future relationships and communication.
Radcliffe, a mother of six, stressed the importance of positive labelling. A captivating speaker with a great sense of humour, she succeeded in getting the message across that calling a child “slow” or “stubborn” only reinforces that negative identity and inevitably results in his living up to that image.
Yes, it is possible to raise your kids without raising your voice. Just check out chapter six. And, while you’re at it, do yourself and your family a favour by reading the rest of the book and benefitting from its invaluable information.
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