The Whole Brain Child: My Thoughts

Call me Lore's The Whole Brain Child Book Review-6

I remember the last time I went to Disneyland with Dustin about two years ago, we were at the Disney store and we saw several kids throwing big tantrums, and throughout the rest of the day, we saw so many! Maybe I noticed it even more because we were getting ready to start trying to have a baby and I was kind of terrified (haha). However, the point is that I remember thinking, “Why were my brothers and I so well-behaved (for the most part), and what did my parents do right?” I kept thinking about how you can have the balance of being an amazingly loving and supportive parent, while still being able to discipline and have a good relationship with your kids.

The Whole Brain Child

Even after Diego was born, this was something I still wondered about. While being a parent is mostly about instinct and doing what feels right, I still wanted to get more educated. While I was browsing Audible Library for my audiobook for the month (I try to listen to a book every month since finding time to read is hard), I stumbled upon The Whole Brain Child. I fell in love with the book, because it’s all about understanding how childrens’ brains work, and making sense of why they behave a certain way! It also addresses how we as parents should act in order to make each difficult experience, like a tantrum, easier on us the parents, better for the child and turn it into a learning experience that will help them as they become adults!

This book not only helped me with understanding the different stages of brain development for kids, but it also helped me to understand my brain as well! Added bonus! Sometimes even we don’t understand why we act certain ways in situations and after reading this book, I think I have a more clear idea of how our brain works and how it affects our feelings and actions. More importantly, though, it talks about how we can stop being just passengers in our lives and become in control of our brain and the way we think.

Essentially, this book focuses on 12 basic strategies to deal with different stages of an infant and toddlers’ life. I love that every strategy is not just explained from a brain point of view, but it also has practical examples of how you can apply that strategy. I feel if it wasn’t for the examples, the book would not be as useful.

Parenting strategies mentioned in the book:

  • Let the clouds of emotions roll– this strategy helps you to understand how get little ones to move away from negative emotions, and that emotions are just feelings that will eventually go away.
  • Storytelling– Using storytelling as a strategy can help kids that went through a difficult situation to overcome it.
  • Using conflict- Conflict can be used as as an opportunity to connect and learn.

Overall, I thought this book was amazing, because I felt that it gave me concrete tools that I can use to deal with difficult situations that may come soon, like me not wanting to get Diego every toy at the store (haha). I feel like reading this book made me confident that you can discipline your kids in a way that helps them grow, makes your relationship with them stronger, and equips them with the tools that they need to have healthy relationships as adults.

I know that simply reading a book will not teach me how to be the best mom I can be, but I do believe that knowledge is power and the more we know, the better decisions we can make!

Hopefully this review was helpful and encourages some of you to actually read the book. I think it’s also great if dad or family members read it too. Plus, listening to it in an audiobook format is great, because you can listen to it little by little in the car or even at the gym.

Do you have any recommendations for any other parenting books I should read? I would love to hear them in the comments below!

P.S. You can buy the audiobook here.

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