On Becoming Childwise: Parenting Your Child from 3-7 Years

I have worked the baby wise and now child wise concepts in my home since my first born arrived a little over 2 years ago. My husband and I are constantly amazed at the results we get by following a few basic ideals.Even our pediatrician asked if we followed the babywise/childwise philosophy. I said yes, how did you know? Her answer was simple and direct. She said, "I've seen thousands of children and the babywise (childwise) children are consistantly healthy and very confident" She continued to sing the praises of these books and our child. In fact, at our 2 year check up she gave us, the parents, an A+. I can't tell you how gratifying a feeling that is for a first time parent.I've read the negative reviews on Mr. Ezzo's books and I'm baffled. But if you read the reviews of the parents that actually read and applied the philosphy in these books to there own children, most of those reviews are positive. That says a lot.The final proof to myself that I'm doing the right thing by my child is the behavior of many of the kids in my moms' group. All the children (around 25) are within 2 months in age. The other moms ask me, how do you get your son to mind? He actually comes when you say, "Come here". He listens when you say no. He takes his nap everyday. He goes to bed without incident at night. He eats the dinner you put in front of him...I could go on and on.My son and I had a play date with one of them yesterday. Her child has been "on-demand" feeding since day one and has always slept in the parents' bed. This whole week, the child wouldn't take a nap and has had hysterical melt-downs every afternoon. She finally fell asleep while we were there (around 5pm) and slept for a short while, only to be up until midnight that night. The mother cries to me, "I don't know what to do".I wish I could tell her Babywise (Childwise), but I don't think the mom is willing to change what she's been doing. But you can...start from day one with Babywise. It's hard work at first, but trust me, it pays off in the long run and you too can have healthy, confident and wonderful children.

I underlined this book so much the first time through that it now looks like a well used college textbook! And maybe that's appropriate because it is a fantastic handbook resource/ guide to childhood and teaching your child how to behave in fundamentally respectful and courteous ways to their parents and others. We have seen great success with the techniques explained here even though we are still at the beginning of our journey through child-rearing.As a case study: our three year old girl was getting out of hand with back talk, tantrums, and disobedient. She would be sweet and angelic one moment and in a total meltdown the next when something happened to cross her will. We began requiring more respect from her and enforcing quick, responsiveness with non-reactionary regularity and it has changed her world. She is not only more polite and respectful, she's also more even-tempered, cheerful, and understanding when things don't go her way. She speaks confidently but appropriately with adults and peers and she hardly ever has meltdowns anymore. We couldn't be more pleased or grateful for this book. It really gave us the courage to assume our role as parents not pushovers.

I have read all of the "wise" series from when my first child was born almost six years ago and I have learned a lot, had many positive results, and couldn't recommend them more. I read my first BabyWise to learn about their parent-lead approach to raising a baby (sleep training, breastfeeding, schedules) but have found deep insights into raising my children to be moral, compassionate, respectful, and loving children. There's a little bit more religion than I typically need, but it's not bothersome to me. The authors say people will come to you with complements for your baby, toddler, child - oh what a good sleeper, he's so well-behaved, what a nice boy, etc. I can attest to this and I have to say, to a great extent, I attribute this to the parenting skills I learned from these books. Easy to follow approaches, founded in strong theory. I have recommended these books to many friends and women at their wits end with their kids. It's not for everybody but I value them enormously.

I began initiating some of the practices in Child Wise after breezing through half of the book and was pleasantly surprised at how well both my children and I responded. On day one, our house became calmer, quieter, and the kids began listening and obeying with less complaint. After bedtime (Which went the smoothest it has in weeks) I finished the remainder of the book and feel empowered to bring a better balance to our home. I found the advice to be realistic, practical, and (so far) effective.

Very practical advice.

V useful book.

Book was good, but delivery went beyond the 10-15 business days advertised