Parenting Pearls: Gems for the Puzzled Parent

IntroductionParenting Pearls is mighty in content, simple in format. It is great in ideas, small in size. Informational, inspirational, and sometimes humorous. It is different from any parenting book you have ever read or will ever read. The gems vary in length from one sentence to several paragraphs. Twenty-two years as an educator, fifty years as a parent, ten years of conducting parenting workshops, and extensive research are the resources used to write Parenting Pearls. The smaller gem following each larger gem is simply a fact that needs repeating, or one important enough to stand alone. No book about parenting can say it all, but this one promises to help you become a more diligent, intelligent, and compassionate parent most of the time. Many of us wanted to become parents long before we took the plunge. Perhaps it was our nurturing instinct or because we hoped to produce a little person more beautiful or more talented. Maybe. If we failed in our efforts to produce, some of us advertised for someone else's newborn, all expenses paid, or if we were rich, rash or desperate enough, we chose surrogate motherhood, the ultimate in carry-out service. Each of the gems address a different subject. They can help a parent sail the murky waters of parenthood without sinking. Parenting is exciting, exhausting, and expensive. It is rewarding, challenging, and time consuming. Parenting requires flexibility when advisable, firmness when necessary, and the ability to know when to be flexible and when to be firm. Parenting Pearlswill help. Parenting can bring both incredible joy and unbearable pain. It brings laughter and tears, pride and shame, hugs and discipline, kisses and control. It means sometimes experiencing unpleasant emotions in ourselves or witnessing them in our children. Although the pronoun, ''he' is used sometimes in the gems, and 'she' at other times, the solutions suggested may be used for either sons or daughters. One of the pleasures of parenting is the flexibility