Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child

Renowned child psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of Lost at School and The Explosive Child explains how to cultivate a better parent-child relationship while also nurturing empathy, honesty, resilience, and independence.

Parents have an important task: figure out who their child is—his or her skills, preferences, beliefs, values, personality traits, goals, and direction—get comfortable with it, and then help them pursue and live a life according to it. Yet parents also want their kids to be independent, but not if they are going to make bad choices. They want to avoid being too overbearing, but not if an apathetic kid is what they have to show for it. They want to have a good relationship with their kids, but not if that means being a pushover. They don’t want to scream, but they do want to be heard. Good parenting is about striking the balance between a child’s characteristics and a parent’s desire to have influence.

Dr. Ross Greene “makes a powerful case for rethinking typical approaches to parenting and disciplining children” (The Atlantic). Through his well-known model of solving problems collaboratively, parents can forgo timeout and sticker charts; stop badgering, berating, threatening, and punishing; allow their kids to feel heard and validated; and have influence.

From homework to hygiene, curfews, to screen time, Dr. Greene “arms parents with guidelines that are clear, doable, and sure to empower both parents and their children” (Adele Faber, coauthor of How to Talk So Kids Will Listen). Raising Human Beings is “inspirational…a game-changer for parents, teachers, and other caregivers. Its advice is reasonable and empathetic, and readers will feel ready to start creating a better relationship with the children in their lives” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

• Explosive Child, The: A New Approach For Understanding And Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children
• Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them
• Lost and Found: Helping Behaviorally Challenging Students (and, While You're At It, All the Others) (J-B Ed: Reach and Teach)
• Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach
• Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage with Life
• The Adventures of Stretch More: Pick-Your-Path Stories for Solving Problems Together
• No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
• Taking Charge of ADHD, Third Edition: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents
• Parenting Toolbox: 125 Activities Therapists Use to Reduce Meltdowns, Increase Positive Behaviors & Manage Emotions
• Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children's Behavioral Challenges