Parental Guide on Difficult Discussions for Tweens: Listening

Parental Guide on Difficult Discussions for Teens is a extensive guide for parents/family/teacher for answering some sensitive topics with teenagers. Personally I am so glad found this book just right in time when my son start hitting the milestones very soon.
At least this book prepare me to give enlighten response, tips and practices to handle big issues such as alcohol, death, abuse, racism, violence, social media, drugs and other else.
Highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for provided me with this copy. I learning alot today but my thoughts are my own.

This book Parental Guide on Difficult Discussions for Tweens: Listening by Elaine D. is a self help/guide book for parents of Tweens and above. Most help books focus on children who are small or teens who are older, this one hits a spot for children in the age group of 8-12 years who are no longer children, although as parents we do not see them as having grown or rather outgrown us. They display streaks of independence that hurts parents and sometimes smothering them too much is counter productive in the long run.

This book by Elaine aims to hit parents of kids in that age group with a list of what nots and what could be done to address issues, whether there is an issue in the first place and how to react when faced with something unexpected. as a father of a Tween myself it was in my self interest to try to understand my kid and this book helped me understand or validate some of my own observations.

The language of the book is easy going and easy to follow and Elaine needs to be commended for this.

The book focuses a lot on positive parenting and talks about stepping back and letting the kid explore the world instead of handholding them, easier said than done but correct way of making them responsible. It also talks about communication or talks with the kids at appropriate times and on even un-appropriate topics which considering the levels of information overdose through various channels like mobiles, tv, etc. that the child is readily exposed to; is extremely important. the kids of this age also feel the need to question about things they have heard, seen, etc. and as a parent it is extremely vital that they get the correct context from us rather than some half baked ideas or speculations from others.

This book has a guide bifurcated by age on how much information and what level would be comfortable for the child of that particular age. It tells about communication breakdown, importance of a good relationship, the Why's of their reactions especially the Teens, difference between a typical against problematic behavior and when to draw the line and seek expert help.

As is expected the book focuses a lot on the issues of Teens and takes the parents to understand various issues like drugs and their impacts and uses.

Mental health and its issues are also a part of this book as is the most recent serious phenomena, Social media. and Cyber bullying.

I liked that the author has touched upon most of the facets that affect children, the parents and their relationship and talks about how a lot of these issues can be minimized by a strong relationship with the child and open communication channels which would help the child to reach out to her parent at the first sign of uncertainty.

Not everything written in this book would be required by all parents but this book does provide a blanket information about all prospective issues which may crop up for children. The book provides clear cut views on all issues and prospective solutions.

As they say forewarned is forearmed when dealing with such an important commodity (children and their future) a parent can never take a chance and any verified information is great and helps save time in researching that topic online where a lot of unverified information is floating. This also beats asking people who may or may not be qualified or who would bank upon their own experience in raising their children which may or may not meet our requirements.

In short I would recommend this book as an essential read for all parents of kids as a textbook to prepare for their growing up. This is an education degree that all parents need.

I compliment Elaine and her publishers on this compact book and wish them all success. Too much of Teens against tweens brings down a star but a high nearly 5 star effort.


I thank NetGalley for this ARC and would like to make it clear that I have read the book and this review contains my own opinions based on my reading and any other comments in this review are my own based on my experience as a father to a 10 year old - a Tween.