Calming Angry Kids: Help and Hope for Parents in the Whirlwind

by Tricia Goyer

Book Overview

Slammed doors. Hurting hearts. Tricia Goyer knows what it's like to parent children with chronic anger. In Calming Angry Kids, Goyer draws on her own experience to help readers understand what's going on in a child's brainfocus on relationship over rulesteach a child how to handle frustrations without outburstscontrol how they express their own anger establish a standard of respect in the home Including...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1434711005
• ISBN13: 9781434711007
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: David C Cook
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully encouraging book with practical ideas

Calming Angry Kids by Tricia Goyer is a wonderfully encouraging book for parents (or grandparents) dealing with children who have anger issues. I had 5 children (all now older adults) and don't remember them exhibiting a lot of anger but two of my grandkids have definite behavioral problems (to put it mildly!) so I was looking forward to reading this book. The author, in the midst of her experiences, speaks from her heart, not in a manner that says I've learned it all, so listen to me! but as a friend willing to share the things that have worked and are working for her with her children. Several things that resonate with me are the reminder to be focused on relationships instead of rules (and a clean house!) and that raising children is a journey, not a marathon. The changes will not happen overnight. In our instant gratification kind of world that we live in, it is easy to get discouraged when things are not instantly perfect. I also liked the reminder that sometimes the first step to healing a child's hurts and heart is to understand one's own feelings and emotions, recognizing them for what they are and then allowing God to align them with His precepts. So many good tips--being forgiving, allowing God's Spirit to guide, filling our minds (and our kids' minds) with God's Word, walking the talk (being the model adult one wants one's child to be), positive attention, praise the good, and one-on-one time--all such valuable advice. Some specific ideas that I am hoping my daughter will implement with her kids are using an anger log to chronicle angry outbursts, a thought notebook to help replace negative thoughts and focus on positive ones, and thinking cards to come up with ideas to respond to negative thoughts in a proactive way and avoid the cycle of anger and frustration. The author shared not only from her own experiences but from other parents and professionals that have dealt with angry children. At the end of each chapter are Reflection Questions and Action Steps to enable the reader to understand their own emotions and experiences and then to put into practice things mentioned. Other reminders I gleaned were to avoid power struggles, ignore the words and attend to the emotions of the moment and to show up every day, to run this often times frustrating parental race with faithful endurance. As she noted with a quote from Russell A Barkley, "The children who need love will ask for it in the most unloving ways." I am excited to share this book with my family and friends. Such a practical book with lots of principles to learn and tips to put into use, to help our kids learn to calm their angry emotions and actions. I received a complimentary copy of an advanced reader's copy of the book and was not required to write a review. The opinions are my own.