PRESS ROOM - Why are Parents Confused?

Too many conflicting theories of parenting – in books … on the Internet … from friends and family – are confusing and frustrating parents. Parents are unsure about their parenting. They want to raise happy children with high self-esteem, but they wonder why even their young children are becoming spoiled, self-centered, disrespectful – even angry. Why are teachers and pediatricians complaining about how young children are behaving? What’s creating these problems?

What are the keys to this dilemma?

• Parents only have partial information on how to build young children’s self-esteem. They’re missing the critical information to do it right.
• Parents don’t understand how much to expect of young children, and don’t comprehend how differently young children think from older children and adults.
• Parents feel that their young child’s views are just as important as theirs. But in reality, parents know better than their children.
• Parents feel that their child’s feelings are important and theirs aren’t.
• Parents don’t know what rules to have and how to deal with their children’s limit-testing and resistance.
• Parents don’t know how to judge what a child has learned at the end of a difficult situation between them and their child.

B. Annye Rothenberg is a child/parent psychologist specializing in parenting issues of typical families with young children. Her new books, Mommy and Daddy Are Always Supposed to Say Yes … Aren’t They?, and Why Do I Have To? help parents cope with these quandaries. They teach preschoolers and their parents in groundbreaking two-section books that are receiving rave reviews from parents and professionals. Dr. Rothenberg’s psychology practice is in Emerald Hills, CA, and she is on the adjunct faculty in Pediatrics of Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a mother and author of Parentmaking and other textbooks for family guidance professionals. She guides parents and also teaches pediatricians and other professionals how to give child-rearing guidance to families. Available now are the first two books in a series of five books for preschoolers and their parents on the common issues in child-rearing. She can be reached at (650) 364-4466.