Synopsis
How to Have an Imperfect Family and Be Perfectly Satisfied; Respected psychologist Dr. Brad Sachs helps parents to recognize their unrealistic expectations for their children and to love, accept and nurture the family they have to its full potential. Appropriate for the parents of toddlers to teens, his approach frees them to discover acceptance of themselves and of their children. When you're about to become a parent, you're convinced you can raise a child right. You imagine your child's future and how you will anticipate and respond to his or her every need. You and your partner will be the Perfect Parents, blissfully playing your destined roles to the Perfect Child. At some point, this dream shatters. Perhaps she cries the entire first year. Or perhaps, instead of playing with his preschool classmates, he kicks and bites instead. Or she's become a brat who mouths off to the teachers at the expensive private school you sacrifice so much to afford, or he's a body-pierced teenager who won't talk to you at all. Or she hates sports, even though you still play on three local teams, or his grades are terrible and tutoring isn't helping. And not only is your child imperfect, so are you.
Rather than the kind, tolerant parent you thought you'd be, you're exhausted and demoralized, irritable and disappointed, and you say terrible things you instantly regret but don't know how to take back. This is all normal. And in The Good Enough Child, psychologist Dr. Brad Sachs helps parents free themselves from the crippling belief that a healthy family should be absolutely perfect. Combining stories culled from his years with a family practice (as well as from his own time in the parenting trenches), a thoughtful analysis of parenting behaviours, and hands-on exercises, Dr. Sachs helps parents to uncover the roots of their expectations and preconceptions about their children and begin to help their family acheive a loving, supportive, realistic relationship and their children to grow into their potential.
