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Connection Parenting: Parenting Through Connection Instead of Coercion, Through Love Instead of Fear
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"Connection Parenting" is based on author Pam Leo's seven week parenting series, "Meeting the Needs of Children," that she has been teaching for over sixteen years. The premise is that a strong parent-child bond is the key to children's optimal human development and our most effective parenting tool. Connection Parenting is a proactive approach to parenting that supports p
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Paperback, 205 pages
Published
November 1st 2005
by Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing
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Start your review of Connection Parenting: Parenting Through Connection Instead of Coercion, Through Love Instead of Fear

This book is full of good information, but Ms. Leo is not an author. She badly needs to have had this book edited. Nonetheless, I recommend reading this book; behind the hokey terms like "love cup" are some important concepts about treating our children with respect, honoring their feelings, and meeting kids' needs.
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In Connection Parenting there are no quick fixes, no time-outs, no threats, no coercion used in Pam Leo's methods... instead she teaches parenting through connection. One of the things she said that stuck with me is about how we need to stop treating children as "second-rate citizens". While this may seem a little over the top I feel like we, as a nation, do treat our children pretty poor. We raise our children the way we were raised (with a few changes here and there) but don't stop to think ab
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I really like the concept of connecting with your child, showing respect and love as opposed to using coercion or fear of punishment to change behavior; but she was really big on if your child has behavior problems, its because you as a parent aren't meeting the needs of that child. I don't fully agree.
I also think we have to be careful about not allowing our children to work through struggles because not everyone out there in the world is always going to try to meet our children's needs and we ...more
I also think we have to be careful about not allowing our children to work through struggles because not everyone out there in the world is always going to try to meet our children's needs and we ...more

Aug 13, 2008
Sonya Feher
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
parents
Recommended to Sonya by:
API
Shelves:
parenting,
nonfiction
This is a great overview for parents who don't have time to read tons of parenting books. The author was a childcare provider for 22 years and then taught parenting workshops for 16 years before writing this book. Connection Parenting
asks one to reflect about one’s own parenting goals and inheritance (how one was parented). That grounding in history and future helps to deal with parenting in the present: how to communicate, understand what a child is communicating, discipline, and make sure eve ...more
asks one to reflect about one’s own parenting goals and inheritance (how one was parented). That grounding in history and future helps to deal with parenting in the present: how to communicate, understand what a child is communicating, discipline, and make sure eve ...more

I love this book so much!!!!!! I felt like it saved me and is really helping me to brake the parenting cycles that have been happening in my family for generations. I think that it a wonderful peaceful method to parenting and truly works. It has brought awarness to how and when I communicate with my children. I have bought it for one person and insisted others buy it, keep it and read it.

This is a great parenting book. An accessible collection of kernels of insight and truth present in other remarkably valuable works -- like Hold Onto Your Kids and Non Violent Communication -- it also includes thoughtful original ideas. Leo has the great advantage of being concise, making Connection Parenting easy to recommend to parents whose time is short. One of the best ideas in the book is that the true magic word is “let’s.” I also appreciated her discussion of how to interpret behavior to
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Jun 29, 2011
Andre
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
parents
Recommended to Andre by:
wife
This is a quick read and filled with practical advice. Pam Leo eschews the heavy data-driven and theoretical approaches that some parenting books can get into and focuses on making the concepts "real" for your family. It makes a great companion book to Magical Child, but can also stand alone as a great book to reach for when you need some help.
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I absorbed this book like a sponge! The ideas and principles are an inspiration to me as a clinician intern becoming a child therapist. I have approached my sessions with the intention of helping parents connect with their children and it has yielded postive results. I cannot sing enough praise of this book!

There were some ideas in this book that I absolutely loved like a child cooperates better when they have a good relationship with a parent. I also like her ideas about treating children with more respect. There were some ideas that didn't make much sense to me though. If you never punish a child (inlcuding taking away privildges) how will they ever learn responsibility for their choices?
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This book is rather new age and sappy but it also provides the best approach to parenting that I have seen. No one could always be as kind and gentle a parent as this book advises, but just having read it helps you to pause in the heat of the moment and think and calm down enough to be a better parent.

This is one of my favorite parenting books. It's short, sweet and to the point.
One chapter per week is a good way to work your way through it for the first time.
Now I reread bits and pieces whenever I find myself straying from being the kind of parent I want to be. Just a few minutes with it help me recenter.
It's also one of my favorites to share with new parents. ...more
One chapter per week is a good way to work your way through it for the first time.
Now I reread bits and pieces whenever I find myself straying from being the kind of parent I want to be. Just a few minutes with it help me recenter.
It's also one of my favorites to share with new parents. ...more

This book should be a must read for parents. I'm only giving it 4 stars, because it goes a bit over the top some times. There's a page where it compares Ghandi and Hitlers upbringing, without, as far as I can tell, any facts to back this up. If that part was cut out, it's still very mushy, but bearable mush.
I love the fact that this book gives useable advice. It's not an intangible philosophy, it gives situation examples and ways to avoid them or solve them.
Tried and tested at home I can only sa ...more
I love the fact that this book gives useable advice. It's not an intangible philosophy, it gives situation examples and ways to avoid them or solve them.
Tried and tested at home I can only sa ...more

This was a quick read, and one with principles I needed reminded of. It is far easier to bark out a order or come up with a quick consequence than it is to take a moment to connect with the child and find out what the true need is of that particular child at that particular moment. I feel like I picked up some more tools for my parenting toolbox along with just being reminded of some I let go by the wayside for lack of time and effort. However, the problem of sin and the answer found only in Chr
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Jun 11, 2008
Sue
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
all parents and caregivers
Shelves:
parenting-and-family
This book reminds me of what my parenting beliefs were back when I was just the mother of one. Something about being the mother of two made me too tired to remember all my high ideals and lofty goals and this book has been instrumental in getting myself back on track. AND I know Pam Leo's advice works, because I saw it working for my son when he was an only child, and I see it working for both of my children now that I am implementing these strategies again. My son is happier and I am a more rel
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This is the best parenting book I've ever read. Our parent education teacher at preschool highly recommends this book for everyone, no matter what age your kids are. This book is fairly new, but will soon be a huge hit! The author, Pam Leo, teaches ways to find solutions that are loving, using connection and talks against any type of fear based techniques. You'll be amazed at what you are doing right now that isn't benefiting your kids,even though you have the best intentions. A MUST READ FOR AL
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Easy read. Short sections and tid bits that allow you to pick up and read an idea 2-5 minutes at a time if you wish. Embraces the best of all my favorite parenting books. Each chapter references other books if you are interested in reading more indepth on what is presented. THIS is your cliff notes. This is your bathroom book. This is the book you might be able to get your husband to read. It's a fast read, and I will probably read it again and again. Simple, to the point, informative, effective
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Another wonderful resource for attachment and connected parenting. Had a wide variety of other books and websites at the end that helped me compile a new amazon order of parenting books since I have now read all of my previous ones. Looking forward to reading some of the books I have read about in Connection Parenting.

I don't remember exactly when I read this, but it was sometime after my first daughter was born in 2001 and possibly after my second daughter was born in 2003, but almost more likely it was before. In any case, this book above all informed my parenting philosophy. If someone asked me to suggest only one parenting book to read, it would be this one.
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Apr 26, 2019
LLL USA Breastfeeding Support
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
loving-guidance
This book is a concise and insightful guide to parenting. Pam Leo provides the theory to encourage parents to connect with their children, as well as the practical tools to effectively transform common childhood behaviors. She is honest about the challenges facing many parents today, and provides strategies to overcome these challenges without resorting to authoritarian parenting.

She has an important message! She doesn’t make much of the science that backs up what she is saying, but there IS new (10 years?) science that backs her up. It’s a good one, and she lists MANY other books that augment her message. It’s a pretty quick read, so... I recommend. [I only gave 3 (more like 3+) stars because I am used to reading the heavier-on-science stuff, which I prefer.]

Presented a lot of true principles but I didn't always agree with the way the author suggested those principles be applied so I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it without some reservations and explanations first.
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Some really good techniques that have helped me step back and rethink my patenting. I really stop to think "I need to teach her everything! Every emotion and how to deal with it and we've made huge strides in her behavior! Way less arguing and bickering.
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This is one of the best parenting books I've read - still it's taking me a while to get through it. It's an easy read, but it's a workbook, and I just am not making it a priority.
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Feb 22, 2008
Kate
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
any parent
Shelves:
non-fiction,
parenting
I LOVE the compassionate philosophy espoused in this book. SO kind and respectful of children. A very quick and easy read.

Apr 05, 2008
Michelle
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
parents, grandparents, anyone who likes kids
Great book! I took a class from Pam once, this book is basically the text to her class. Very helpful and inspiring.

The author gave tons of great techniques and advice. If you are a parent or plan to be a parent someday, this book can help you get thru the terrible twos and three's without hitting or yelling.
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Nov 03, 2008
Rebecca
added it
Great easy read which helped me enormously
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Pam Leo is an independent scholar in human development, a parent educator, a certified childbirth educator, a doula, a parent, and a grandparent.
"After my first child was born in 1972, it became my passion to understand human behavior. I began to study child development, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I wanted to learn why we are each born as a tiny innocent being, and some of us grow up ...more
"After my first child was born in 1972, it became my passion to understand human behavior. I began to study child development, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I wanted to learn why we are each born as a tiny innocent being, and some of us grow up ...more
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