Loving Each One Best: A Caring and Practical Approach to Raising Siblings by Nancy Samalin, Catherine Whitney (With)

From the Publisher

All those baby boomers who have embarked on the journey of raising their second and third children have found themselves left in the lurch by existing child care literature. Now child care expert Nancy Samalin, who has earned a reputation for her forgiving and empowering approach to parenting, brings her inspiring outlook to this guide to the pitfalls and rewards of parenting two or more children.



Parents who consider themselves pros after the first child are in for a surprise when the encounter life after the second child is born and beyond. Suddenly their world is an exhausting haze of competing demands, perpetual squabbling, sibling rivalry, complaints of unfairness and "you love him more" (and sometimes you do), unrelenting stress, and a pervasive sense of guilt and inadequacy. Culled from her years of workshops with hundreds of parents, Nancy Samalin shares the trials and joys of parenthood and provides specific advice on steering your way through the parenting rapids. This is a must-read for today's harried parents.

Publishers Weekly

With warmth and humor, parenting expert Samalin (Love and Anger and Loving Your Child Is Not Enough) comes to the aid of parents who have entered the sibling minefield. Tackling the big issues (what to do when the new baby arrives) and small ones (what to do when there is only one bowl of the favorite cereal left), she offers strategies culled from her workshops and seminars and hundreds of questionnaire responses from parents and children. There are parent-tested ideas for avoiding the fairness trap and what to do when a child's complaint about his brother is that ``he's breathing on me.'' Also discussed is how to get the kids out of the house in the morning and into bed at night without feeling like a traffic cop. Samalin discusses ways and means of carving out personal time, reducing stress and expressing anger without being destructive. Anecdotes drawn from real-life situations may occasionally strike some as overwrought, but are generally helpful. This is a good book to have when you're having more than one. First serial to Good Housekeeping and Parents' magazines; author tour. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Samalin, a consulting editor and columnist for Parents magazine and author of Loving Your Child Is Not Enough: Positive Discipline That Works (Viking, 1987) and the award-winning Love and Anger: The Parental Dilemma (Viking, 1991), offers here additional practical advice to parents. Combined with the author's expertise, Loving draws upon experiences and ideas from respondents to a 20-item questionnaire and participants in Samalin's parent guidance workshops. Topics addressed include adjustment to new siblings, parental fairness, sibling bickering, and dealing with children's differences. One chapter has girls aged nine to 16 tell their perceptions of sibling and parent relationships. Loving focuses on raising siblings, thus not duplicating Samalin's earlier books. Written in conversational style and filled with anecdotes, Loving is easy to read and helpful. A suggested reading list of 75 books on various aspects of parenting is included. Recommended for public libraries.-Carol R. Nelson, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, Ind.

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