Excellent, although Whole Brain Child remains my #1 recommendation and is much shorter. It feels like there are too many acronyms and steps/cycles, so definitely refer to the summary chart in the back. The whole book is overly wordy commentary on the “connect and redirect” strategy from Whole Brain Child.

Recently, I had some friends ask me why am I reading parenting books ? I must admit that I've never laughed harder reading anything else (except اخبار الحمقى والمغفلين - أخبار الحمقى والمغفلين) ...I came across this while I was reading (Les chroniques d'une mère indigne tome 1: -Les chroniques d'une mère indigne tome 2: - Les chroniques d'une mère indigne 2 ), I couldn't simply read it with a straight face, five years later, I decided to read my first serious parenting blogs, to which I could relate as a child/baby and other times as a babysitter... Especially on occasions like these "Eid", when your relatives' babies are running full speed in your granny's large hall oblivious that the wall ain't no fluff, or worse, are wrestling just near the tea tray. And to save that tray, you ought to know a little bit about kids, tantrums, their reptilian brain hijacking the cute little human who kissed you earlier, and why are they misbehaving ? But most importantly, lower your expectations when it comes to their reactions ("It's not that they won't keep it together, but they can't.") "Your child's misbehaviour is often a sign of his trust and safety with you." Discipline is about learning and teaching, it's not only stopping an odd behaviour but also teaching skills that will help children make better decisions in the future. The no-drama way, doesn't imply ignoring the melodrama and feelings of kids or parents, rather acknowledging the feeling, connecting with it, and repairing ruptures that inevitably occur. It is a way of helping the child to figure it out for himself rationally (to some extent). "Engage, don't enrage." I personally found the connecting part very helpful, and isn't necessarily related to age, because it is based on three timeless values : Insight, Empathy and Integration. The book takes advantage of neuroplasticity : " Our children's brains are extremely plastic -they change their structure in response to experience- and our children can respond very quickly and very productively yo new experiences" + " Neurones that fire together wire together." and declares it to be key to ensuring a steady whole-brain development for children (something they obviously wrote about in a previous book - The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive). Another asset to avoid drama, is - as mentioned earlier, and is capital in the whole affair - to lower your expectation when it comes to kids reactions and behaviour, they will loose it at some point and that is supposed to be fine. (FINE) All in all, this didn't only help me have the calmest babysitting session ever, but also to know more about myself, shift from a reactive to a reflective mindset and acknowledge the mutual frustration. Of course, you can't expect it to work instantly, nor perfectly, and this book makes it natural that you'd fail at least every time for a week to understand the little humans (0-25 yo) ... Better, the book comes with a checklist and some notes for other caregivers. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL. P.S: Perfect parenting doesn't exist, it's just a combo of guts, science and context, even our failure as parents can be a great lesson for our kids ... (The more you know...) الله يسمح لينا من الواليدين