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thereadingmum's review against another edition
5.0
This is so timely and so true. It's not about eliminating technology or being screen nazis, it's about balance and setting limits and priorities. It's about parents being parents, not pandering to tantrums. Speaking from personal experience, unsupervised television watching was very damaging to my teens and early adulthood. The result of which is that I've disconnected from my parents. Technology is a growing presence but it is so easy for the young to learn, they are not going to lose anything if they don't have it as a dominating presence on their early childhood and early teen years. I love the idea of a tech Sabbath and collecting devices in a box at home. I feel like those who gave this book a low rating are really feeling guilty. I'm not perfect either but I'm going to take lots of suggestions on board.
joelaschwartz's review
2.0
This book emphasizes a negative approach to technology with a nearly exclusive emphasis on limits and what not to do. A book that presents a constructive picture of parenting and relationships, focused more on formation than fear would be far more helpful for parents. However, if you feel absolutely lost when it comes to how to parent in a world of screens, this book is not a bad starting point.
lisagray68's review
3.0
First let me say I love Gary Chapman, the co-author of this book. But this book, like all recent books on kids/teens and social media, leaves me a bit cold. Maybe it's because I think my household is doing a pretty darn good job on integrating technology. But these books always make me feel - despite the fact that they deny it vociferously - like they are saying "technology=bad, relationships=good". Well, yes, we all want our kids to grow up knowing how to be relational. The problem is, those of us writing the books, from the pre-technological world, seem to only look at it this one way: limit technology SO THAT our kids can be relational. The problem is, that by the time our kids grow up, their entire WORLD will be technological. So it seems to me that what we need is to teach kids how to BLEND being relational WITH being technological & screen driven - a skill we as parents don't necessarily have. I don't know that saying "limit screen time" is really going to work in the world they are going to live in. I mean, obviously, I certainly believe in having screen free dinnertime, etc. -- I guess I just think everyone knows that. I think we need smarter techniques to help our kids make swift and frequent transitions between screens and relationships.
caidyn's review
3.0
Actual rating: 2.5
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book!
I'm going to start off with saying that I'm not a parent. I'm also a part of the digital age that they're talking about in this book. First cell phone when I was in fourth grade, computer came when I was about in eighth grade. I got a Kindle for my birthday two years ago. Obviously, I'm very much an average person for my age group. So, I'm going to do my best to review this book from the eyes of a child from this age.
The book, overall, was good. I rounded it up because it provided good information for parents and good ways that my own parents used when I was growing up, even though when I was little there wasn't very much technology around my house. Still, I have some critiques for what was said in the book.
1. Mentioning God in the book. On NetGalley this book does not say that it's Christian and I don't think, therefore, you should mention God in a parenting book. Every parent is different. I personally did not grow up in a religious household and I turned out just fine. I just don't think that it should be mentioned because some parents are atheists or Buddhists or anything else besides Christian. If it's aimed for Christians, it should be advertised as such.
2. Too controlling. Oh my. Yes, you can control your children, but you also have to trust them. If you control everything down to what they read and can look at on the internet, they're going to think that they don't trust you. And you have to trust them. Lay out the rules, and then show them that you trust them enough to make the right decisions. And if they don't, that's when the parents need to start setting up things like black lists. And, no, I'm not critiquing the time limits, because those are needed. Just, trust your child to make the right decision and if they don't, then set up limits and stricter rules.
Those are the main ones. Next, these are some things that I'm not sure that were with the copy I was reading off of, but I'm going to point them out anyways.
1. Someofthesectionswereblurredtogetherlikethis withonly minimalspacesatall. Since I'm not sure that it's like that with the copy I'm reading, I'm just going to point this out. Might just need a bit of final editing before it comes out.
2. The subheadings were very hard to follow. They would be, basically, like this:
how to help your child
With no bolding, underlining, italicizing or larger print. It was hard to tell when I was going into a new section, and I just wanted to point it out so it can get fixed if needed.
3. This might be stemming from what I've been taught through my years of formal writing, but NEVER use the word "I" in it. It's great that there were personal anecdotes from the authors, but you shouldn't use "I" in writing. It makes it rather informal, and it's not something that you want in a formal piece of work.
4. This is about the same as my above complaint with how how to be formal. When you're just addressing a child -- no sex attached, just a child that you're talking about -- don't give it a sex. "When your child does this, you need to stop him by..." It's not proper. If you're talking about some child that has no sex, don't assign one. Just refer to the child as "they". "When your child does this, you need to stop them by..." See? Doesn't that sound better and proper?
Overall, now that I'm finished, I thought that it touched on screen time and all that, but it just felt like an afterthought. There were a few places where it got WAY off topic from the digital age, and then it was just tacked on at the end to make it seem. Try to make it a seamless book where it is all about this one topic, without making it feel forced. This was just another parenting book that tried to focus on the pressing matter of the times.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book!
I'm going to start off with saying that I'm not a parent. I'm also a part of the digital age that they're talking about in this book. First cell phone when I was in fourth grade, computer came when I was about in eighth grade. I got a Kindle for my birthday two years ago. Obviously, I'm very much an average person for my age group. So, I'm going to do my best to review this book from the eyes of a child from this age.
The book, overall, was good. I rounded it up because it provided good information for parents and good ways that my own parents used when I was growing up, even though when I was little there wasn't very much technology around my house. Still, I have some critiques for what was said in the book.
1. Mentioning God in the book. On NetGalley this book does not say that it's Christian and I don't think, therefore, you should mention God in a parenting book. Every parent is different. I personally did not grow up in a religious household and I turned out just fine. I just don't think that it should be mentioned because some parents are atheists or Buddhists or anything else besides Christian. If it's aimed for Christians, it should be advertised as such.
2. Too controlling. Oh my. Yes, you can control your children, but you also have to trust them. If you control everything down to what they read and can look at on the internet, they're going to think that they don't trust you. And you have to trust them. Lay out the rules, and then show them that you trust them enough to make the right decisions. And if they don't, that's when the parents need to start setting up things like black lists. And, no, I'm not critiquing the time limits, because those are needed. Just, trust your child to make the right decision and if they don't, then set up limits and stricter rules.
Those are the main ones. Next, these are some things that I'm not sure that were with the copy I was reading off of, but I'm going to point them out anyways.
1. Someofthesectionswereblurredtogetherlikethis withonly minimalspacesatall. Since I'm not sure that it's like that with the copy I'm reading, I'm just going to point this out. Might just need a bit of final editing before it comes out.
2. The subheadings were very hard to follow. They would be, basically, like this:
how to help your child
With no bolding, underlining, italicizing or larger print. It was hard to tell when I was going into a new section, and I just wanted to point it out so it can get fixed if needed.
3. This might be stemming from what I've been taught through my years of formal writing, but NEVER use the word "I" in it. It's great that there were personal anecdotes from the authors, but you shouldn't use "I" in writing. It makes it rather informal, and it's not something that you want in a formal piece of work.
4. This is about the same as my above complaint with how how to be formal. When you're just addressing a child -- no sex attached, just a child that you're talking about -- don't give it a sex. "When your child does this, you need to stop him by..." It's not proper. If you're talking about some child that has no sex, don't assign one. Just refer to the child as "they". "When your child does this, you need to stop them by..." See? Doesn't that sound better and proper?
Overall, now that I'm finished, I thought that it touched on screen time and all that, but it just felt like an afterthought. There were a few places where it got WAY off topic from the digital age, and then it was just tacked on at the end to make it seem. Try to make it a seamless book where it is all about this one topic, without making it feel forced. This was just another parenting book that tried to focus on the pressing matter of the times.
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