Being at Your Best When Your Kids Are at Their Worst

Practical Compassion in Parenting

By: Kim John Payne MED

Narrated by: Paul Brion

When children are at their most difficult and challenging situations arise, how can we react in a way that reflects our family values and expectations? Often, when children "push our buttons", we find ourselves reacting in ways that are far from our principles, often further inflaming a situation.

When our children are at their worst, they need us to be at our best - or as close to it as we can be. Educator and family counselor Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, offers techniques that simply and directly shift these damaging patterns in communication and parental behavior. These grounded and practical strategies will help you: slow down the interaction; be more in control of your reactions; open up a much wider range of helpful responses; sense what your child's deeper needs are even though they are misbehaving; and respond in a way that gives your child a feeling of being heard and still puts a boundary in place.

Payne's meditative approach can be done anywhere, anytime; it lifts you out of old, unwanted patterns of action-reaction and prepares you so that the voice you speak with is closer to the parent you want to be. His concrete and simple techniques can help you, and your children, be at your best, even in the most challenging of times.

©2019 Kim John Payne (P)2021 Tantor

Great advice!

Good thoughts and advice. I liked that the family’s attention should be not child centered but values centered.

It was ok...

This book is how to regulate yourself to be the best parent you can be.... it felt geared heavily to older children that can communicate more effectively...
it is always worth learning to be a better parent!

Real useful guidance for parents-a MUST read

This book helps get perspective when parenting is hard and gives tools that feel good to use albeit challenging for the parent, we all want the best for our kids and this is how to do it!

Amazing!

Great! Very informative! Interesting way of relating and taking apart difficult situations. Looking forward to more literature from this writer.

meditation visualization thing

I heard the author interviewed on the 1,000 hour podcast. in it he mentioned the anecdotes about kids unraveling knotted ropes and building their own bikes. nothing in the interview hinted that this entire book leads up to a guided meditation he wants parents to do daily and then gives support for doing the daily guided meditation. not at all what I expected from a parenting book at all, nor what I expected based on the author interview. definitely not in line with a Bible-based worldview.