Have you ever tried to change another person? If you have, you probably know it is next to impossible. Most parenting books teach parents how to change the child. The Parent Fix focuses on the parents, emphasizing a parent’s need to change to inspire family improvement. If our greatest joys and sorrows come from family relationships, are we truly happy when we are in control of our loved ones? That deep joy we are searching for comes as we watch those we love learn lessons that change their own lives. To have this change it is the parent who must change. In today’s age of troubled youth, broken families, and mixed messages from the media, our families are fighting a tough battle to succeed. With the increase in drug and alcohol addiction, eating disorders, gang violence, and teenage suicide, many of our families are failing. Parents need help. There is power in parenting—correct parenting. Rather than focusing on the kids, as so many other self-help books do,The Parent Fix stresses that when parents change, kids change. Focusing on key principles like correct judgement, taking time, education and more, Stevens provides concrete ways parents can change their own behavior to improve the behavior of their children. As a mother, Maggie spent years researching and found the answers needed to successfully raise five children. With over thirty years of practical experience, Maggie knows the answers that make a difference. When parents change . . . kids change.

How parents have been set up to fail, and why helping them succeed is the key to achieving a fair and prosperous society. Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Yet this vital work receives little political support, and its primary workers—parents—labor in isolation. If they ask for help, they are made to feel inadequate; there is no centralized organization to represent their interests; and there is virtually nothing spent on research and development to help them achieve their goals. It’s almost as if parents are set up to fail—and the result is lost opportunities that limit children’s success and make us all worse off. In The Parent Trap, Nate Hilger combines cutting-edge social science research, revealing historical case studies, and on-the-ground investigation to recast parenting as the hidden crucible of inequality. Parents are expected not only to care for their children but to help them develop the skills they will need to thrive in today’s socioeconomic reality—but most parents, including even the most caring parents on the planet, are not trained in skill development and lack the resources to get help. How do we fix this? The solution, Hilger argues, is to ask less of parents, not more. America should consider child development a public investment with a monumental payoff. We need a program like Medicare—call it Familycare—to drive this investment. To make it happen, parents need to organize to wield their political power on behalf of children—who will always be the largest bloc of disenfranchised people in this country. The Parent Trap exposes the true costs of our society’s unrealistic expectations around parenting and lays out a profoundly hopeful blueprint for reform.

Have you ever tried to change another person? If you have, you probably know it is next to impossible. Most parenting books teach parents how to change the child. The Parent Fix focuses on the parents, emphasizing a parent’s need to change to inspire family improvement. If our greatest joys and sorrows come from family relationships, are we truly happy when we are in control of our loved ones? That deep joy we are searching for comes as we watch those we love learn lessons that change their own lives. To have this change it is the parent who must change. In today’s age of troubled youth, broken families, and mixed messages from the media, our families are fighting a tough battle to succeed. With the increase in drug and alcohol addiction, eating disorders, gang violence, and teenage suicide, many of our families are failing. Parents need help. There is power in parenting—correct parenting. Rather than focusing on the kids, as so many other self-help books do,The Parent Fix stresses that when parents change, kids change. Focusing on key principles like correct judgement, taking time, education and more, Stevens provides concrete ways parents can change their own behavior to improve the behavior of their children. As a mother, Maggie spent years researching and found the answers needed to successfully raise five children. With over thirty years of practical experience, Maggie knows the answers that make a difference. When parents change . . . kids change.

10 WAYS TO BE AN EXCEPTIONAL PARENT IN A QUICK-FIX WORLD No matter how good their intentions, all parents at times resort to quick-fix parenting: things we do to stop a kid's negative or annoying behavior. Quick-fix parenting may temporarily ease a parent's stress level, but it does little to positively impact a child's future. Quick-fix parenting is a terrible long-term strategy for parenting. Intentional parenting is the opposite of quick-fix parenting. Intentional parenting is a way to raise children to become healthy, independent young adults. It's based on solid principles which, applied over time, actually result in less-stressed parents and happier, better-adjusted, and more successful kids. Intentional parenting means you've got more than good intentions; you've got a plan. (And it's always better to have a plan for dealing with the stuff that inevitably crops up between parents and their kids than it is to wing it.) In Intentional Parenting: 10 Ways to be an Exceptional Parent in a Quick-Fix World, Doug and Cathy Fields draw on their own extended experience with young people and as parents to guide you through 10 specific actions that will help you become a more effective parent. A great resource for individuals, couples, and small groups, this interactive workbook comes with a free code to stream 10 video sessions, plus a small group discussion guide. To find out more, visit IntentionalParenting.com. See more resources like this at OrangeBooks.com and ThinkOrange.com

Clover is way too rigid and often plays it safe. She must learn to be more flexible and spontaneous and take more risks. Clover's Wishworld mission involved a girl who is an only child whose parents completely baby her. Clover tries some very subtle, safe maneuvers to prove that the girl is ready for some independence, but needs to make a bold move to help the girl's parents realize their little girl isn't a toddler anymore.

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It’s handy having a dad who can fix just about anything. A young girl believes her father is the king of fixing things. But following the death of her mother, she discovers that broken hearts are not as easy to repair as damaged toys and cracked teapots. Together, she and her father find a way to glue back the pieces of her lives. The Fix-It Man is a poignant picture book that explores how a child can cope with the loss of a parent (in this case, the young girl’s mother). Repairing damaged emotions is not as straightforward as gluing a broken kite back together or sewing up a torn toy. And grief affects all members of a family, with each responding in their own way to the loss. By sticking with her father, the young girl is able to strengthen her resilience and ability to cope with one of life’s harshest experiences. The author was encouraged to seek publication for this story after receiving the endorsement of several grief counsellors who work with children and who recognised the need for a book such as this.