Here’s what readers are saying about the new book, “Confident Parents, Confident Kids: Raising Emotional Intelligence In Ourselves and Our Kids — From Toddlers to Teenagers.” Thank you to the readers who submitted an Amazon review. The reviews offer alternative perspectives from a diverse range of parents (mostly unknown to the author) that helps others discover the book. Read below and if you haven’t gotten the book yet, it may just be that time! Also, if you are an educator who is working on social and emotional learning in your school, consider proposing the book as a study for your school family community. Learn more here! Check out what people are saying…

Insightful and Actionable Read for Fathers:

I’m a father of two. A eight year old son and six year old daughter. Too often I find myself losing patience with my little ones and knew there had to be a better way than what I was doing. Well that brought me to this book. I loved this. I’m not one for parenting books but this one was fact based, and actionable. I took pages of notes, and am already applying this to our little household. This is a wonderful book.

– Almost Mike

Practical:

I have worked with teenagers my whole adult life and thought I had a pretty good handle on kids until I had my own. I quickly discovered that the emotions of the little ones are out of my expertise. This has been really good at making me slow down and look at my parenting approach. I was able to use some of the advice already with my emotional six-year-old and I believe it helped both of us calm down and understand the situation better. Some of the advice may seem obvious, but it’s stuff you don’t really think of until you actually apply it in the moment. While reading this I had a lot of “OH!” moments that I couldn’t wait to share with my husband. I’ve had a few occasions where just taking a moment to breath and assess my son’s feelings helped diffuse the situation. I’d say that if you have a child who is overly emotional this book will help you understand him/her better. I was never an emotional child and I just didn’t understand how I was “blessed” with such a tender hearted one. I’m grateful to have stumbled upon this book.

– Frankie and Chet

Informative and Helpful:

After our second child was born, I noticed my daughter was struggling with her feelings and behavior. Our son was born with a CHD and needed open heart surgery at a week old, and because of that we were in the hospital for a month and have had some issues with his progression since then. Which meant adjusting to having a sibling has been a bit more difficult than it would be if we had no issues with our second child.

This book has given me a better understanding on how to get my daughter to express her feelings and filter them appropriately. It has also given me the ability to know how to help my daughter be more confident with herself and her emotions. I believe it has changed the way she acts out and expresses her emotions. I have seen an improvement in her behavior and how she handles herself. Instead of just crying or throwing a fit, we are able to talk through what she is feeling and thinking. Granted, because she is only 6, there’s still some tantrums here and there but far less intense and often as they were before. I finally feel like I have a better grip on “handling” my daughter, if that makes sense. I also believe she now knows that I am here for her, and I do want to hear what she has to say and what she is experiencing. I will be able to carry these “tools and tips” onto my son as he gets older!

– V. Anderson

New Parent Enjoyed Reading this Book!

Kids should come with a manual. They don’t however. So I spend a lot of time reading on different milestones and behaviors to see if my son fits societal’s “norm”. When I saw the title I knew I wanted to read this. I wouldn’t say I’m a confident parent because I literally have been winging this every day since he was born… so I thought wow maybe I need more confidence to raise confidence.

I appreciate the different concepts being put in a cartoon form for understanding purposes. I can see how other people feel it may be too simplistic, but it makes it easy to digest the information you’re getting. There was a few concepts in the book that I immediately wanted to share with my husband, because often we don’t realize the emotional tone we’re bringing in a situation yet don’t understand why our children are acting up.

Both my husband and I work in high stress jobs and have realized we can’t bring home any of that stress home… easier said than done… but it’s an important concept for is to work on and one we often didn’t realize were doing.

I appreciated the book and I appreciate learning from different sources. Print quality was great and I definitely will use this book as a reference for awhile.

– Amanda Nichole

Worth reading to help your children develop emotional maturity:

I came from a home where academic success was valued. I was successful and I emphasized this with my children. It is easy to ask for and get measurable things from our kids, so we tend to focus on those, but this book talks about developing emotional intelligence–something that may drop to the bottom of our lists because we don’t know how to do it. To develop emotional intelligence, we can focus on our own emotional maturity and develop our child’s at the same time.

Author Jennifer S. Miller uses an abundance of illustrations, many of them musical in nature, and her middle section is divided by age: infants to 3-year-olds, 4- to 7-year-olds, 8- to 12-year-olds, and 13- to 17-year-olds. I am impressed with a lot of her input. Her section on helping babies sleep was pretty common knowledge, but other sections give lots of practical suggestions regarding how to create a helpful environment and interact mindfully and maturely to help children develop emotional resilience.

If you are serious about parenting, you probably read lots of books. This is one that is worth adding to your list to help you develop good, but unmeasurable emotional maturity in your children.

– E. Burton

If you’re new to the idea of “emotional intelligence,” this is a great primer.

I’m a neuroscience/psychology geek, so a lot of the ideas in this book were familiar to me. But I like the way they were presented (very readable and accessible) and I like the way the book gave specific examples and approaches to implement them. The book is broken down further into age groups, which is helpful. I do wish the author would have broken down the 13-17 age group even further, because middle schoolers and, say, a junior in high school are VERY different- a lot of change and personal evolution takes place during those years, and it would have been helpful to have a set of parameters for a middle schooler and then another set for an older teenager as they prepare to go to college (or whatever their next step is).

Regardless, this was a good book, and I think for those who are looking to understand and empower their kids (and learn a bit about the emotions of a parent, as well), it’s a great read.

– C.M. and T.M.

What I like most about this book is that the title delivers on its promise:

What I like most about this book is that the title delivers on its promise. I am a much more confident parent of a tween after having read this book. It seems as if one evening I was the mother of an easily satisfied young boy and the next morning I was the mother of a more complicated tween, testing the boundaries on everything, reforming beliefs and opinions and renegotiating relationships with himself and others. He’s a wonderful boy that I want to grow up into a confident and socially intelligent young man. I want to help him navigate his emotions and the complex social world in any way I can. I’ve implemented many of the suggestions in this book. I am grateful to Jennifer Miller for writing it.

– Kindle Customer

Great informational read:

This book is packed full of psychological and developmental tidbits so that parents not only are told what to do but they understand the why. Despite being so packed full of knowledge, it is done in tidbits spread throughout the book making it an easy read. This book should be a must for new parents as it covers both emotional intelligence AND social skills. Confidence is the best indicator of success in life, NOT intelligence. This book teaches the ultimate backbone of parenting. And it does it for every age group. You can read the book cover to cover or skip the ages that no longer apply to your children. This makes it an even easier read.

– mom2howmany

Insightful:

As a parent, grandparent, and teacher, I found this book to be deeply inspiring and insightful. Inspiring because it talks to parents about looking at their child directly in a way many have difficulty with. We have always struggled to see our children separate from ourselves. But this is a learned skill and one that is so important. My youngest would say I haven’t learned it.

I found a lot of things to think about while working with and living with teenagers. They are so complicated and yet they see everything. Learning to speak with their own voices is a powerful lesson. It is one we all learn.

– Trouble

Must read for parents:

This book is a must read for parents – new, old, male, female. Teaching parents to be confident in their craft, to raise confident children and to completely transform their way of thinking is really an amazing thing. If I could, I would recommend this book to most parents that I know. I thnk that the tools in this book are under utilized by many!

– Paigii

Practical with great implementable advice:

As an educator who is researching Social-Emotional Learning and a parent of a 4 and 6 year old, this book is perfect. The book explains very well our natural tendencies based on our own experiences but also gives practical advice on how to support without enabling your child. Great read for educators and parents alike.

– Adam Shields