In a sea of parenting books, this book is a rarity.
Parents Have Feelings Too focuses more on what we, as parents, can change in ourselves, rather than focusing on what we want our children to change. The authors explore how changing our approach to our own emotions and emotional reactions may pave the way for better emotion regulation and emotional intelligence for our offspring as well.
This reads more like a guide to understanding our own core emotions. Including understanding the unique reasons why some defensive behaviors and/or inhibitory emotions may arise more readily in the context of parenting, and how we can use The Change Triangle as a compass to navigate towards a more connected state during those times.
The concept of the 4C’s and The Change Triangle- including defenses, inhibitory emotions and core emotions are heavily referenced throughout the text.
As a therapist and parent, myself, I think I will be recommending this book a lot.

DNF at 24% - This book was really appealing to me as a parent who would like to be able to reign in some immediate gut reactions with my kids. I didn't get that at all. The first portion of the book was common sense. Then the authors appeared to disregard anxiety disorder as a true mental illness, putting the word disorder in quotation marks. They also make.references to those medicated for their anxiety disorder not being the correct course of action because anxiety is just other emotions that need to be addressed. Finally, one of the authors uses the word "chiller" which isn't a real word in the context it was used. She used it to describe herself: "a lot chiller to live with". This book is marketed as written by psychotherapists with plenty of credentials, using a word like that is unprofessional and takes away a lot of believability and confidence in the writers.

This book was an excellent reminder to get in touch with my feelings to help my almost 18-year-old son cope with and name his feelings. It is a struggle for both of us. The book is a fabulous resource for getting on track. I'm hopeful after reading the well-planned title. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.