Parents who are wondering why nearly a half-century of parenting techniques have fallen by the wayside and are still no match for their unruly children may be interested in attending an event at the MarketFair Barnes and Noble on Saturday, June 7, to meet two Princeton authors who are releasing their new book, Beyond Time-Out, From Chaos to Calm.##M:[more]##
Dr. Beth Grosshans, pictured at far right, a clinical child psychologist, and Janet Burton, at right, a clinical social worker, challenge the traditional approach to parenting in the book, and instead are shedding light on what they say is “driving the current epidemic of unruly children and unhappy families.” Emphasis on talking, exalting children’s self-esteem, and issuing time-outs are not effective in calming children’s unruliness and anxiety, the authors say in the book.
Instead, the authors offer a five-step action plan which they say will enable parents to reliably manage the protests common in young children. The authors claim a new way to look at parent-child relationships is “through a lens of an imbalance of family power, where kids have too much power, and parents not enough.”
Using this approach, the authors also explain four parenting styles — pleasers, pushovers, forcers, and outliers — which they say most commonly lead to this imbalance, and offer a five-step plan they call the “ladder” that gives parents a step-by-step guide for what to do and say when faced with unruly children ages 3 to 10.
The authors say the book is for all parents, including those who are just starting out and who want to develop successful parenting skills and those who want to further hone their parenting practices.
Grosshans runs her private child psychologist practice in Princeton, and has over 15 years of clinical experience. She received her masters and doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, and has interned at the Children’s Hospital in Boston and the Judge baker Children’s Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. She has also been a child development instructor for the Princeton Center for Teacher Education and is a frequent speaker in the New Jersey Montessori Network of Schools since 1992.
Burton earned her masters from the University of Michigan and has 40 years of experience in working with families in a variety of settings. She also has held the position of adjunct faculty member at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. In addition, she has provided supervision to graduate students and licensed clinicians for 20 years.
Meet the Authors, Barnes & Noble, MarketFair, West Windsor, 609-716-1570. www.bn.com. Saturday, June 7, 3 p.m.
— Cara Latham
Author Event, Barnes & Noble, MarketFair, West Windsor, 609-716-1570. www.bn.com. Saturday, June 7, 3 p.m.
