Just Tell Me What to Say
Sensible Tips and Scripts for Perplexed
By Betsy Brown Braun (Collins, $15.95 paper)
Parents of 2- to 6-year-olds must confront a host of challenging topics and behaviors with their kids. This book’s packed with sample scripts from a child-development specialist with a sense of humor about the seriousness of it all.
1. The best way to respond to whining: Don’t respond at all. Be “scrupulously consistent in your non-response. … For whining to stop, it cannot ever work.”
2. Don’t overreact to swearing; it shows your child how much power the words have. No one should use forbidden words, including you.
3. When your child says, “I hate you,” calmly address why he’s angry. “He is merely expressing a strong feeling to a person with whom he feels safe.”
4. Be honest, even when it’s something your child might not want to hear (“Yes, we’re going to the doctor, I’m sorry the shot will hurt, it won’t hurt for long”).
5. To minimize sibling fights, give children their own toys and space, even if it’s just a drawer or a corner of a room.
