What passes for parenting "common sense" today often falls short of the mark. Many of the most common ways parents try to get kids to behave only adds to their stress and frustration, with little resulting improvement in children's behavior. Now there is Parenting With Courage and Uncommon Sense, a book written to show parents what really works when it comes to raising children who grow up to be good people, not just good kids. The book was written by the founder of one of the largest and most successful non-profit parent education programs in the U.S., the Parent Encouragement Program (also known as PEP) that has flourished for more than 30 years. Linda E. Jessup, the founder of PEP, partnered with family therapist Emory Luce Baldwin to write this comprehensive parenting guide for Moms and Dads. Unique among most parenting books, Jessup and Baldwin illustrate their points with the story of a family struggling with familiar problems. Each chapter shows how the parents' growing understanding and skills remedy their most frustrating problems while also creating more harmonious relationships between family members and a calmer, less stressful environment in the home. The lively format and true-to-life examples entertain readers, while also showing parents how to: -Understand why their children behave the way they do; -Help children end their repeated, disturbing misbehaviors; -Discover ways to encourage children to try harder to improve and deal better with their mistakes; and -How to use love, respect, and encouragement to teach children to grow kinder, more cooperative, and more helpful. Written as a book to support PEP's parent education program, Parenting With Courage and Uncommon Sense is loaded with "take-away points" and detailed appendices that show readers how the ideas in the book can used in their own families. Parents will find this book a valuable resource to return to again and again, as their families grow more courageous and more uncommonly sensible.
About the Author: Linda E. Jessup, R.N., M.P.H., F.N.P., founded the Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) in 1982 and directed it until 2000. A family nurse practitioner with a background in anthropology, Linda is fascinated by the pursuit of healthy relationships among people of every age and culture. Once a "desperate parent" herself, Linda discovered an Adlerian Family Resource Education Center in 1975. Using this practical and inspiring approach, she and her husband raised three children, while adding four foster teenagers to the mix, one of whom they adopted. Linda founded PEP and developed most of the curricula and materials used in PEP classes today. While growing PEP, Linda taught, wrote, and networked; hosted a radio talk show for nine years; and presented as many as 50 original parenting talks and workshops per year. Linda has published numerous columns for parenting newsletters and magazines, as well as writing chapters and larger segments of nursing books. Emory Luce Baldwin, M.S., Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist, has been a parent educator for over 20 years. She brought her long-standing interest in families and parenting to PEP in 1993, when she was looking for new skills to help her with her own children. Since then, she has taught hundreds of classes for parents of babies, teenagers, and all ages in between. As one of PEP's most experienced class leaders, Emory frequently facilitates Open Forum Counseling, an Adlerian model in which she works with a family before an audience of parents and children who wish to improve their response to a common family problem such as power struggles or messy rooms. Alone and in collaboration with her colleagues at PEP, Emory developed and presented many talks and classes, including "Setting Limits with Extra-Challenging Children," "Motivating Children to Succeed," and "Helping Discouraged and Anxious Children." An award-winning writer, Emory frequently writes about parenting topics for local and national publications. For years she has written a monthly advice column for the Voice newspapers of Takoma Park and Silver Spring, Maryland. In her family therapy practice, Emory serves families with children, adolescents, and young adults in the Washington, D.C.