Reviews

Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility by Jim Fay, Foster Cline

alreadyemily's review against another edition

1.0

Some useful ideas, some disturbing ones. Did not finish.

tnhayes's review

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

jamie5190's review

3.0

Best parenting book I’ve read! Makes you think of how you talk to and treat your kids vs your spouse, friends, etc. So much good information!!

bangalee57's review

1.0

Not a fan. I can't endorse any book who highlights locking your 4 year old child in the room (Oh but you should stand right outside!) or asking your 7 year old child if you look like an idiot. I tried to read to extract whatever good was in there, but I pulled out my pencil and started marking the book where I vehemently disagreed, so I set it aside and moved on to other books I find more beneficial.

kathleec's review

informative medium-paced

2.0

I read the third edition - the first three chapters and the last two Pearls are good, but most of the in between didn’t align with my values. Many of the tactics felt manipulative and passive aggressive. There were times where the authors basically recommended not fully communicating what the child has done wrong because according to them, the child will be able to infer based on your actions. Many of the stories and sample dialogues throughout the book were laughably unrealistic and conveniently supported the point they were promoting perfectly. I think the big take alway of allowing your child to experience natural consequences and cultivating their confidence in their own decision making skills especially when you start early on when children are making low-risk choices was great, but I don’t think many of their tactics regarding how to do that really hit home for me. 

val_broadbent25's review

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

midwifereading's review

3.0

Overall, I really like the principles, but, like all parenting books, I took it with a grain of salt. I understand that not every parenting method works all the time, with all children, and that it's a mistake to believe there are any guarantees.

That said, I was able to glean a lot from the principles and philosophy of this book. Applying them to everyday situations is harder than I expected, but I am seeing some positive results even as I give up some control. There were also some methods and principles I disagree with, and I did so freely. This book isn't the Bible, after all!

I think really finally helping me to understand that my children have total free will, which they will exercise with or without me is the greatest thing this book did for me. It gave me a fresh new motivation and perspective, and that is always a good thing.

I definitely recommend it if you're in a parenting rut. I really appreciated it.

turquoiseavenue's review

4.0

As a first time parent to a strong willed child, I appreciated much of this book. My husband and I loved the advice of using thinking words and allowing natural consequences to parent with. There were several pieces of advice that I rolled my eyes over, knowing it wouldn’t work with a child who pushed back and would need a more in depth technique which wasn’t offered in this book. But overall, the book does lend some worthy parenting techniques and it’s relatively current.

katieinca's review

4.0

Some parts of this are more useful than others, especially with young children or if you're not a big churchgoer, but it's definitely thought provoking. I can tell already that parts of it will remain in the back of my mind for years to come.

mrsbrharris's review

4.0

I really liked this book. I liked the religious aspects of it and how it was laid out. There are some things in it I probably won't do, but there were a lot of good concepts and things that made sense to me. Now we need to see if it works!