The Happy Kid Handbook
How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World
Editorial Review
It seems everyone has a different method for dealing with the madness. Attachment parenting, free-range parenting, mindful parenting—who is to say one is more right or better for one’s child than another? How do you choose? The truth is that whatever drumbeat you march to, all parents would agree that we just want our kids to be happy. In The Happy Kid Handbook, child and adolescent psychotherapist and parenting expert, Katie Hurley reveals that cultivating happiness in children’s lives is about parenting the individual, because not every child is the same, and not every child will respond to parenting the same way.
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Wisdom to Share
No two kids are exactly the same. And while a general blueprint of rules and expectations takes the guesswork out of each day, children also need the opportunity to simply be themselves.
How can each kid shine when they are all bound by a general set of rules and standards with no room for change? We have to parent the individual.
Everyone needs both time alone and time spent with other people. The difference between introverts and extroverts is how much time they need of each to thrive.
When the expectations placed upon kids are in sync with their specific personalities, kids experience self-confidence, a sense of accomplishment, and greater happiness.
Raising happy kids means striking the right balance for each child in the family, even if that means that you deal with the chorus of "It's not fair" from time to time.
Play is the language of children. Through unstructured play, children learn to communicate, think creatively, work through their emotions, increase problem-solving skills and frustration tolerance, build social interaction skills (they learn to get along), and just have fun.
Children who engage in regular free play experience increased verbal and cognitive skills, improved memory, improved oral language skills, and increased physical development (assuming some of that free play entails jumping, rolling, running, and other outdoor activities that might actually frighten parents at times).
Kids experience shifting emotions throughout the day; that's perfectly normal. They might be elated over a new friendship one moment and hysterical about a small paper cut the next. It's all in a day's work when you're young.
While the kids who don't have a clear understanding of their emotional process might get lost in the highs and lows each day, the kids who can label their feelings and find a solution are able to move on more quickly after experiencing difficult emotions and, in turn, be more open to happiness, even when the going gets tough.
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