Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
by Adele Faber
from Collins Living
With a title like this, it's no surprise that authors Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish had a monster bestseller on their hands when the book first appeared in 1988. From the subsequent deluge of readers' stories, questions, and issues, they have created nearly 50 pages of new material for this, the 10th anniversary edition. The central message remains the same, and sounds almost too simple: avoid comparisons. But parents know that's easier said than done. The value of Faber and Mazlish's discussions is precisely that they talk you through umpteen different situations and outcomes to help you teach your brawling offspring a new set of responses. The highly informative text is punctuated with helpful summary/reminder boxes and cartoons illustrating key points. It's a must-read for parents with (or planning on) multiple children. But parents of young children who get along fine (so far) should read it too--as the authors make very clear, rivalry is inevitable. The only question is how to manage the rivalry with intelligence and compassion, and on that subject they offer a wealth of good advice. --Richard Farr
When parenting authorities Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish sat down to write the national bestseller How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, they found that they couldn't contain their chapter on sibling rivalry.No matter how much they tried to pare down their advice, they found the subject inexhaustible -- and their readers agreed!
The result is this seminal book -- revised and updated after more than ten years of feedback from parents' letters, TV and radio talk shows, and Faber and Mazlish's highly successful parenting workshops. Siblings Without Rivalry guides the way to family peace and tranquillity with humor and compassion for both parents and children. Illustrated, action-oriented, and easy to understand, it's packed with sensitive yet sensible ways to turn quarreling siblings and frustrated parents into an open, communicative family.
Birth Order Book, The: Why You Are the Way You Are
by Dr. Kevin Leman
from Revell
Dr. Leman's ever popular book on birth order is ready for a new generation of readers. With insight and wit, Dr. Leman offers readers a fascinating and often funny look at how birth order affects personality, marriage and relationships, parenting style, career, and children. Whether at home or on the job, birth order powerfully influences the way people interact with others. This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about how they react to their world. Dr. Leman even shows readers how to overcome ingrained tendencies they never thought they'd be rid of, all by focusing on their birth order.
Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found
by Marie Brenner
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
To be sure, some brothers and sisters have relationships that are easy. But oh, some relationships can be fraught. Confusing, too: How can two people share the same parents and turn out to be entirely different?
Marie Brenner’s brother, Carl—yin to her yang, red state to her blue state—lived in Texas and in the apple country of Washington state, cultivating his orchards, polishing his guns, and (no doubt causing their grandfather Isidor to turn in his grave) attending church, while Marie, a world-class journalist and bestselling author, led a sophisticated life among the “New York libs” her brother loathed.
From their earliest days there was a gulf between them, well documented in testy letters and telling photos: “I am a textbook younger child . . . training as bête noir to my brother,” Brenner writes. “He’s barely six years old and has already developed the Carl Look. It’s the expression that the rabbit gets in Watership Down when it goes tharn, freezes in the light.”
After many years apart, a medical crisis pushed them back into each other’s lives. Marie temporarily abandoned her job at Vanity Fair magazine, her friends, and her husband to try to help her brother. Except that Carl fought her every step of the way. “I told you to stay away from the apple country,” he barked when she showed up. And, “Don’t tell anyone out here you’re from New York City. They’ll get the wrong idea.”
As usual, Marie—a reporter who has exposed big Tobacco scandals and Enron—irritated her brother and ignored his orders. She trained her formidable investigative skills on finding treatments to help her brother medically. And she dug into the past of the brilliant and contentious Brenner family, seeking in that complicated story a cure, too, for what ailed her relationship with Carl. If only they could find common ground, she reasoned, all would be well.
Brothers and sisters, Apples and Oranges. Marie Brenner has written an extraordinary memoir—one that is heartbreakingly honest, funny and true. It’s a book that even her brother could love.
Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends
by Sarah Mally
from Tomorrow's Forefathers
Brothers and sisters are among the most important people in life. The emphasis of this book is not merely "getting along" but being best friends.
Just Sisters: You Mess With Her, You Mess With Me
from Willow Creek Press
Sisters are wonderful, and sisters are terrible. Depending on the day, the mood, the weather, or the time of day, a sister can be a companion, an adversary, an enemy, or a soulmate. But no matter what, a sister is always a best friend, and the combination of animal photos and quotes in this delightful gift book celebrate the unique duality of sisterhood.
Emotionally Healthy Twins: A New Philosophy for Parenting Two Unique Children
by Joan Friedman
from Da Capo Press
Twin Set: Moms of Multiples Share Survive and Thrive Secrets
by Christina Boyle
from Three Rivers Press
When Baby Makes (Much) More Than Three
If you’re a new mom of multiples, it can be hard to find advice and enough people in your life who “get it” or give you the support you need. Luckily, there’s Twin Set: for moms of twins, by moms of twins. Twin Set provides a parent-to-parent support network—based on an exclusive national survey of more than 300 moms of multiples—and shares indispensable, mom-tested, solution-oriented advice . . . and a few laughs along the way. There’s also a Mommy Doc and Daddy Doc onboard, two pediatricians who contribute medical perspectives on various issues, in addition to special features from experts ranging from a financial planner to a nutritionist—many parents of twins themselves! Twin Set includes:
• Answers to your biggest twin pregnancy questions
• Advice on handling the emotional impact of premature delivery
• Lessons on feeding, bathing, and dressing your twins, taking them out, and
putting them to bed
• Tips from dads of twins, for dads of twins
• Solutions for managing twice the laundry, bottles, spills, and other messes
• Options for multiples child care, from birth through school age
• Insights into twin bonding, development, and safety
• Lists of essential twin resources, gear, and equipment
This encouraging and essential guide will help you savor—not just survive—life as a time-crunched mom of multiples.
From One Child to Two
by Judy Dunn
from Ballantine Books
Most mothers and fathers are surprised at how different parenthood feels when the second child arrives. Even before the birth, a host of new questions arises: can you possibly love a second child as much as the first? Is it better to have them close in age or farther apart? What about sibling rivalry?
In From One Child to Two, Judy Dunn gives parents all the information, emotional support, and reassurance they need to handle the stress -- and relish the joys -- of raising two children. An internationally recognized expert in the field of sibling relations, Dunn draws on her own decade-long study of siblings at home, as well as from extensive interviews and observations of parents and children.
-- How the second pregnancy differs from the first
-- How and when to break the news to the first child
-- How to manage the days surrounding the birth, the hospital visit, and the crucial first month
-- Being prepared for your firstborn's reaction to the new sibling by age group -- toddlers, preschoolers, or children in early elementary school
-- How to cope with the new demands on your marriage
-- The major milestones that families face together -- the changing role of fathers and grandparents, managing new schedules, and coping with parental burnout
-- Sibling rivalry: what to do about fighting, when to intervene, and when it's supposed to get better!
Whether you're contemplating a second child, expecting one any day, or trying to cope with the changing dynamics of your newly expanded family, From One Child to Two is an indispensable guide. Filled with common sense, down-to-earth, and eminently practical advice, this is the one parenting book that you will refer to again and again.
Twinspiration: Real-Life Advice From Pregnancy Through the First Year (for Parents of Twins and Multiples)
by Cheryl Lage
from Taylor Trade Publishing
Twinspiration combines guidebook how-to with personal diary to lead mothers through pregnancy and the first year of their twins' lives. This carefully laid out book provides an array of information from the basics to the questions you are too afraid to ask with humor and honesty. This is the must have all in one resource for any couple that is expecting twins.
Ready or Not . . . There We Go!: The REAL Experts' Guide to the Toddler Years with Twins
by Elizabeth Lyons
from Finn-Phyllis Press, Inc.
Elizabeth Lyons and her “multiples” sorority of moms and twins come to the rescue again in this hilarious, strategy-filled, tell-it-like-it-is guide to the toddler years with twins. From managing tantrums times two in Aisle 9, to the need for large quantities of antibacterial hand sanitizer and ketchup, to the perils of potty training twins, the approaches contained within Ready or Not . . . There We Go! will keep parents two steps ahead of their newly mobile charges. It’s the resource no parent of twin toddlers should be without.
Elizabeth's wildly popular first book, Ready or Not... Here We Come! is also available from Amazon.com
+++
