I really disliked this book . . .
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I have to agree with the negative views posted here. I wanted to add my review to help balance out the numerous positive reviews. I too consider myself an "attached" parent - I nursed both my girls for at least one year each (while working full time) and work very hard to be an effective parent even though I'm not home with them every day. As other reviewers have said, this book does the attached parenting thing to death. It more than implies that if you're an attached parent, you'll simply know what it is your child wants or needs and if you don't know, you must not really be an "attached" parent. In my experience, that isn't reasonable - no matter how good a parent you are, there are times when you simply aren't going to understand what your child wants. That's ok! The real world does not revolve around our little darlings, no matter how much we'd like it to. The advice to simply and gently "redirect" a toddler from something he or she wants is totally laughable if you have a toddler like I did who does not understand the subtlety of a gentle redirection! In the real world, children need both negative and positive reinforcement to learn right from wrong and safe from unsafe. This book misses the mark by a mile in that respect.
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Not for children under 1
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Our child's under one, and just getting to the discipline stage. There's nothing for a child under age one, unless you want to be told the value of attachment parenting (which I do not believe in). I've got a successful "Baby Whisperer" child so far. I'm keeping the book (I got it as a gift), but only because when I skipped around, it seemed to have some advice we might find useful when our child's older. If I hadn't have gotten it as a gift, I wouldn't have bought it because of the attachment philosophy, but I'm new to the world of discipline techniques so I'll keep it.
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Not what an 'attached parent" needed...
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I loved the "Baby bBook", but was quite dissapointed with this one. It has little advise to balance excessive attention and control our sun was getting as a result of this approach. At this point I beleive that most "attachement" parenting families with one child spoil their children rotten and deprive them of independance they crave by age 2. Unless they have 8 of them like Sears. For balance I would highly recommend all books by Magda Gerber, particularly "Your Self-Confident Baby". She is a recognised authority on early childhood by both Montessori and Waldorf movements. They changed my life. By the way, i did not need a huge chapter on benefits of not spanking my children. i doubt many Sears followers do.
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High expectations, but disappointed
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I was so thrilled about all I learned from the Sears Baby Book, that I was sure this was the only discipline book I'd need. Instead, I just read it and it is going straight into the trash (and yes, I read the whole huge thing, hoping at some point it would get better and more useful) Dr. Sears, you hae a lot of fans out there (myself included) but you really missed the boat on this one! The book goes on and on and on about attachment parenting philosophies (wear your baby, nurse, sleep with your baby) and even though I've done all that I find this book does the attachment parenting thing ad nauseum. I actually found myself thinking it is a bit offensive, because Sears seems to think that children who are properly attached, or attached enough, will not have discipline issues. Well, that's just not helpful to me as I try to find strategies to deal with my daughter hitting other children, or throwing food on the floor (for 4 months now), or having little tantrums, etc. If you want a book that will make you feel good about all the great attachment parenting you've done, or horrible about all the attachment parenting you haven't done, then this is the book for you. If you want a book that is more about strategies to deal with toddlers and their behavioral challenges (and why they work, and the strenghts and weaknesses of various approaches), keep looking. I'm going to try "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for toddlers" and "Becoming the parent you want to be."
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I WANTED to like this book
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but it offered no real practical advice beyond common sense approaches. Plus, Sears et al seemed to believe that if you practice their attachment parenting approach you should avoid all disipline problems. Well, that's not terribly realistic. I really loved the Baby Book and often purchase it for my new mommy friends, but this book won't be part of my recommended reading list.
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