Raising a Self-Reliant Child

With this practical guide, parents can end daily power struggles with their preschoolers, toddlers, and infants and create more time for the family to spend on things that matter by encouraging early childhood independence skills. We’ve all heard the news about helicopter parents and boomerang children—but how can parents safeguard against these trends when our children’s lives are increasingly scheduled and competitive? Pediatrician Dr. Alanna Levine offers a commonsense parenting approach that avoids divisive strategies and helps parents find a balanced ground between overindulgence and strict control. Raising a Self-Reliant Child focuses on teachable moments where parents can instill independence, such as sleep time, toilet training, mealtime, and playtime. With Dr. Levine’s practical strategies and techniques, young children learn to take responsibility for their daily routines: babies learn to sleep through the night, toddlers learn to nap without their parents stretched out alongside, and school-age children learn to dress themselves and make breakfast with little parental intervention. Overprotection and micromanagement keep young children from the self-development that comes naturally from learning and doing on one’s own. And children who don’t learn independence skills at an appropriate age grow into adults who expect others to fix challenges and conflicts for them. Dr. Levine helps you break the cycle of daily power struggles so that you and your family will have more time to focus on the things that really matter. From the Trade Paperback edition.