This is an important book for all parents. The author offers practical advice with chapters on coaching, setting boundaries, using discipline, shielding your treasures from the trash (magazines, books, music, movies, TV, video games, and the Internet), engaging, teaching gratefulness, and most important - listening. A must read!

I have never been a parent before so all I know about parenting I know thanks to the examples that surround me, some of which are really more examples of what not to do. As I embark on my own parenthood journey I can't help but want to prepare as much as I possibly can. For me preparation equals obtaining lots of knowledge and figuring out what kind of people I want to raise.

I agree with so much the author writes in this book. I too have seen that many people and children today are complete and total narcissists filled with feelings of entitlement and that to me is incredibly wrong. A lot of that stems back to how people are being raised and so much of what "experts" claim is good for our children has done nothing but fuel the narcissism and entitlement. I want to raise a person who understands that everything is not all about them. I want a child who is grateful and who doesn't require material things in order to feel complete and "happy." The advice found within this book is advice that keeps the above in mind and help you to parent in such a way that this is possible.

What I love most about this book is that even though the author shares her Christian beliefs I really think that there is something for anyone who is or will be a parent despite their own religious belief. If you plan on having children or have children and you want to raise them to reach their fullest potential then I think you could really benefit from reading this book. I, for one, plan on referencing this book as I raise my own children. ( )

I received a copy of the newly released book Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World by family advocate, Jill Rigby, in return for my honest review of the book.

I wanted to review this book because I felt that it would give me some good insight into raising children today and what is wrong with our kids. I just retired from a position as Administrative Assistant to the Principal of a parochial high school. I worked there for ten years and saw a side of parenthood that I was not pleased to see. I wanted to know if I was wrong in my assessment of today’s children vs. parents.

Ms. Rigby gave great insight into why it seems that kids today are so rude, disrespectful and spoiled. I saw why some children never grow up and expect others to do everything for them, hand them money and take care of their responsibilities in order that they have more time for sports, social media, and selfish interests. My pet peeve was parents who regularly bring “forgotten” items to school for their poor, dear children. I even admonished a father after the fifth time he catered to the forgetfulness of his son, a junior in high school. I asked him how he expected his son to remember for himself when all he had to do was call dad on his (student’s) cell phone (which is totally against the school rules) to bail him out. How do parents who continually cater to their children’s whims, desires and demands expect them to grow up to be responsible adults? They blame society and “the times we live in” as the cause of it. Ms. Rigby shows just how this disrespectfulness and disregard for others becomes the norm of our children’s behavior today.

Too many parents choose to be their kid’s cheerleader. A child needs to know that some kids will be better at some things than he. Kids need to learn how to lose gracefully and not blame the coach, the other kids, the play director, or someone else just because they can’t always be first. We shouldn’t expect our kids to always be first. Someone has to lose.

I would love to see every parent of every student in my former school given a copy of this book. I’m sure they would recognize themselves and hopefully use Ms. Rigby’s ideas to change this behavior and start becoming parents instead of friends to their children. I would like to see parents make children take ownership of their undone homework, failed test scores and disrespectful behavior. If that would happen, I think their life at home and in school would be so much more acceptable and rewarding. I really liked the premise of this book and would highly recommend it to parents and teachers alike. These two groups need to start working together for the good of the children, instead of parents always taking the child’s side if problems arise in school.

Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., sent a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

You can find this review on my blog at http://wp.me/p2pjIt-77. ( )