My New Parenting Book is Out!

My new parenting book is out now, it’s called Communicating with Kids and that’s what it’s about, which is ironic really because during the year I spent writing it I barely spoke to mine. They seem to be OK though, I’ve dedicated it to them and apologised in advance for the content. They do feature quite a lot.

It’s quite a slim volume but every word counts. It’s all killer no filler. I like economic prose, in fact I’d like to think that I’m the Kazuo Ishiguro of parenting authors.

I’ve written this book because I’m fed-up of reading parenting advice that a) I know won’t work and b) makes me feel like parenting is a really difficult job for which we need not only a vast array of skills but also the correct ideology and belief system in order to get it right. I’ve written the book I would have liked to have read when I was setting out.

It wasn’t available then though, so the way I did it back in those days was by reading a lot of advice which made me feel like a failure. In retrospect that wasn’t a very good way. I learned a lot of stuff in the beginning which I then spent the next decade or so unlearning bit by bit until finally I felt I’d cleared my head of all misleading rubbish enough to write my own book.

I’ve written it for parents who just want some facts about how to communicate in a way that makes life easier with children rather than more difficult.

I’m hoping that parents will find it really useful and confidence-boosting; I’d like to think that it will help parents to trust themselves and enjoy the journey more. And a teeny part of me would like it to erode a little of the edifice of the parenting advice industry, which continues to advocate hopeless ideals we can’t live up to, just so they can give us more advice to fix the problems they create.