Stayiing Cool and in Control: A Behaviorist's Guide to Parenting (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780983404989)

This treasure of practical advice by award-winning author Dr. Roger McIntire provides the help parents need when they are challenged to keep a steady disposition, manage fair discipline, enjoy the parenting job and stay lovingly close to their children.

Parental solutions and strategies are offered through vignettes, dialogues, and examples on every page. They cover the daily challenges from eating problems to cell phones and from social problems of pre-schoolers to the swirl of violence and sexual suggestions in a teenager's television and computer.

What should you say to your kids at supper? How should you react to their less thoughtful remarks? Chapter 1 of Staying Cool and In Control begins with examples and guidance in these conversations. Chapter 2 proceeds to problems at home and school.

In the chapters that follow, Dr. McIntire offers solutions for dealing with the beginnings of bad language and bad habits and then describes strategies for correcting bad behavior that offer long-term benefits, avoid the destructiveness of punishment, and don't diminish either the child or the parent.

Children want to know "Do you like me?" and "Can we talk?" Parents ask, "How can I deal with his tantrums? What about his computer addiction? What can I do about the bullies she faces every school day? How do I handle it when he (or she) gets interested in sex? Alcohol? Drugs?" Dr. McIntire's book provides effective, practical and proven answers to these questions.

Dr. McIntire, father of three, is professor emeritus of psychology, University of Maryland. His books are published in eight languages.