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Happy Kids: The Secrets to Raising Well-Behaved, Contented Children
A fresh and practical guide to successfully managing children’s behaviour – from babies to young adults. Cathy Glass has been a foster carer for 30 years, during this time fostering more than 150 children, as well as bringing up three of own. Many of these children have had severe behavioural difficulties and have come to Cathy as a last resort, when their parents or carers were no longer able to cope. Drawing on a combination of years of training and extensive personal experience, in this comprehensive guide, Cathy passes on her tried and tested methods for guiding, nurturing and disciplining children. Approaching child development chronologically, this book guides you through Cathy's incredibly simple and effective 3Rs Request, Repeat and Reassure. Within this framework, Cathy addresses a host of childcare issues, including, amongst others, why children misbehave and what parents can do to the change this, how diet can affect children's behaviour, what parents can do to avoid sibling rivalry, and how to spot and address the behavioural symptoms of special needs such as dyslexia, autism, ADHD and bipolar. Applicable to all age groups – from newborn babies to young adults – Happy Kids is a clear and concise guide to raising confident, well-behaved and happy children. Cathy Glass' book 'A Family Torn Apart' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 10-10-2022.
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2010
37 people are currently reading
607 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Glass
180 books2,245 followersCathy Glass is a bestselling British author, freelance writer and foster carer.
Her work is strongly identified with both the True Life Stories and Inspirational Memoirs genres, and she has also written a parenting guide to bringing up children, Happy Kids, and a novel, The Girl in the Mirror, based on a true story.
Glass has worked as a foster career for more than 20 years, during which time she has fostered more than 50 children. Her fostering memoirs tell the stories of some of the children who came in to her care, many of whom had suffered abuse.
The first title, Damaged, was number 1 in the Sunday Times bestsellers charts in hardback and paperback. Her next three titles, Hidden, Cut and The Saddest Girl in the World, were similarly successful, all reaching the bestseller charts.
The name "Cathy Glass" is a pseudonym for author Lisa Stone.
Her work is strongly identified with both the True Life Stories and Inspirational Memoirs genres, and she has also written a parenting guide to bringing up children, Happy Kids, and a novel, The Girl in the Mirror, based on a true story.
Glass has worked as a foster career for more than 20 years, during which time she has fostered more than 50 children. Her fostering memoirs tell the stories of some of the children who came in to her care, many of whom had suffered abuse.
The first title, Damaged, was number 1 in the Sunday Times bestsellers charts in hardback and paperback. Her next three titles, Hidden, Cut and The Saddest Girl in the World, were similarly successful, all reaching the bestseller charts.
The name "Cathy Glass" is a pseudonym for author Lisa Stone.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 24, 2010
This book was full of simply, easy to follow advice on helping your kids behave, without resorting to smacking or harsh punishment. Cathy Glass is a longterm foster carer with years of experience in managing the behaviours of abused and neglected children.
The one thing I didn't like was that once or twice Cathy's opinions made me a little twitchy, such as not sharing personal details with children eg. your age. Occasionally, her gramma was a little hard to follow as well and there were a number of typos throughout the book.
Overall, this book was very useful and practical with sensible advice.
The one thing I didn't like was that once or twice Cathy's opinions made me a little twitchy, such as not sharing personal details with children eg. your age. Occasionally, her gramma was a little hard to follow as well and there were a number of typos throughout the book.
Overall, this book was very useful and practical with sensible advice.
April 21, 2017
Otroligt bra bok med rådgivning samt olika tips och trix för att bättre kunna hantera barn med svåra/aggressiva beteenden ~
September 24, 2014
I'm currently pregnant with my first child and so I have no experience with children yet, because of this I thought this book may help. I just can't put my finger on why in some areas this book just wound me up. It took me quite a while to get through as reading it felt very heavy...like being a parent is a massive chore and you'll have nothing but problems. Perhaps this was a bit too one sided for me, however, there are some great pointers in here so it wasn't a complete waste of time. I'll be sticking to her true life stories in the future.
October 26, 2011
this isn't actually a true story its a book cathy wrote for tips on fostering, so didn't read it all only the first couple of chapters
July 6, 2021
I'm not a mother and never will be one. Yet I am a wife and Life Coach. I found the book very insightful and recommend it to many non parents.
The reason for that is, that everyone at every age has the same needs for boundaries and a clear structure. Be it in a marriage, house sharing, at work, with friends and even for self motivation. And it works wonders.
The book itself is well written and if you read it back to back might come across as repetitive. The reason for this is, that it is always the same formula of the 3 R's. For each age group she is repeating the same formula and ending it with different examples, empathising the fact, that it always works.
She outlines over and over again that it is not the person who is bad, but simply the behaviour which is down to having been taught in a wrong or antisocial way. This viewpoint takes out the personal factor and hostility from the situation and makes it more factual, as in: "the person as a human being is good, it is just this one way of behaviour that is not good, like a mobile phone is perfectly fine, the battery is just flat. I don't need to replace the whole phone or find a new friend/partner/employee/... I can easily remedy the situation and see if it will solve the problem."
She takes away the stigma of being "bad and horrible" when you are being firm and assertive and not everyone's best friend, by explaining the long term gains for everyone involved.
On top of that she gives sound advice, on how food can andd does affect behaviour, which is true for all age groups including the elderly without being too preachy about it.
This is not a book that is intended to be read back to back, but rather skimmed through after the first chapter and dipped into the relevant age group for your child or just to satisfy your own curiosity when you read it for yourself to have better and calmer relationships and interactions with other people.
One friend of mine found it very helpful in understanding how and where his parents went wrong and it helped him to be able to forgive them since they never knew better and to finally allow himself to be himself without the constant doubt if he is good enough because he wants to do things in a different way. He asked for a management position in a different shop that opened up and gotten it and has no fear of being able to manage the team of 5 people.
Great read for all the ages and life situations.
The reason for that is, that everyone at every age has the same needs for boundaries and a clear structure. Be it in a marriage, house sharing, at work, with friends and even for self motivation. And it works wonders.
The book itself is well written and if you read it back to back might come across as repetitive. The reason for this is, that it is always the same formula of the 3 R's. For each age group she is repeating the same formula and ending it with different examples, empathising the fact, that it always works.
She outlines over and over again that it is not the person who is bad, but simply the behaviour which is down to having been taught in a wrong or antisocial way. This viewpoint takes out the personal factor and hostility from the situation and makes it more factual, as in: "the person as a human being is good, it is just this one way of behaviour that is not good, like a mobile phone is perfectly fine, the battery is just flat. I don't need to replace the whole phone or find a new friend/partner/employee/... I can easily remedy the situation and see if it will solve the problem."
She takes away the stigma of being "bad and horrible" when you are being firm and assertive and not everyone's best friend, by explaining the long term gains for everyone involved.
On top of that she gives sound advice, on how food can andd does affect behaviour, which is true for all age groups including the elderly without being too preachy about it.
This is not a book that is intended to be read back to back, but rather skimmed through after the first chapter and dipped into the relevant age group for your child or just to satisfy your own curiosity when you read it for yourself to have better and calmer relationships and interactions with other people.
One friend of mine found it very helpful in understanding how and where his parents went wrong and it helped him to be able to forgive them since they never knew better and to finally allow himself to be himself without the constant doubt if he is good enough because he wants to do things in a different way. He asked for a management position in a different shop that opened up and gotten it and has no fear of being able to manage the team of 5 people.
Great read for all the ages and life situations.
March 16, 2019
Some children are more difficult than others
This has a consistent message to incorporate in child raising. As I just finished raising our grandchild to be an adult in supervised housing as well as two boys, I would say it isn't always that easy. Our last one who came to us at age 6 had a lot on his plate to start and it has been difficult. I would say being older may have given me less patience too. Respect must be modeled and taught so that would be my 4th R. Also I found natural consequences related to the offence are a must. If this book isn't enough consider attending a parenting group of class.
This has a consistent message to incorporate in child raising. As I just finished raising our grandchild to be an adult in supervised housing as well as two boys, I would say it isn't always that easy. Our last one who came to us at age 6 had a lot on his plate to start and it has been difficult. I would say being older may have given me less patience too. Respect must be modeled and taught so that would be my 4th R. Also I found natural consequences related to the offence are a must. If this book isn't enough consider attending a parenting group of class.
November 23, 2019
Some very realistic truths but not my type of read! I did read the first maybe 5 chapters pretty easily but after that I just found I wasn’t excited to get sat down with my book on a night, a few more chapters in I decided to call it a day. I thought that it would be a very beneficial book as a mother and I think having been having any type of behavioural problems with my daughter I may have found it more beneficial, but fortunately thinks are fine apart from the odd little paddy as you’d expect from a 3 year old lol
October 18, 2016
This book was extremely simple and straightforward. I really liked how much detail Cathy went into and the examples she provided. She organized the book by chronological child ages (first talking about infants and ending with young adults). Her suggestions seemed very easy to follow. Cathy even included information for teachers and other professionals who work with children. I personally wish she would have talked a little bit more about fostering in particular and the specific issues that children from the system face, but I understand she was making a parenting book for the general public. Not everything in this book was new, but it had great "common sense" information for struggling parents. Again, I really appreciated how long the book was and all the detail she provided.
October 24, 2018
Straightforward, easy to read book with great parenting advice. I agree with the majority of the content but think she’s overly strict at times. Definitely worth reading if you’re responsible for children.
December 18, 2016
Written by an author responsible for some of the big sellers of 'misery-lit' (something I didn't know when I took this book off the shelf at the library) it offers no startling new techniques. Essentially it advises to be calm, keep control and that most kids really just boundaries that parents stick too. Extremely simple BUT if you are looking for technique to use, it could be helpful to have a 'script to follow' if you are trying to turn your household around.
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September 14, 2016I liked this take on parenting. It gave solid advice on how you could raise your kids in a stress free home and gave good examples. After reading this I could see how she used these techniques in her memoirs.
April 14, 2016
Too mechanical. Not enough love.
July 13, 2012
Currently reading and so far so good :)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews