Our virtual world book tour is about at the half way mark, but there is still time to join. Just scroll down three posts to Oct. 1st and follow the directions. Thanks!
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Today I want to share part two of the FAQs for Messengers in Denim. One more will follow next week.
Where did you get its title? Messengers in Denim comes from my belief that all babies are born with a message from their Creator. It is our responsibility, as parents, to decipher that message and, by using our God given lessons, we teach them to be men and women of character. You will remember that in both the Old and New Testaments God used angels as messengers. So you could say that kids, and all of us, really are angels.
But aren’t there already tons of parenting books? What’s different about this one? Yes, there are thousands of parenting books and if you Google “parenting” you will come up with more than 211,000,000 sites. But, I guarantee this one is different in several ways. Most parenting books are written by academics. These men and women have a depth of knowledge, and usually much experience, but their experiences usually involve kids who are sick, or in trouble. (Families don’t take normal kids to see a psychologist or to an academic institution.) Messengers is written from the perspective of healthy ordinary kids. Only one other book, just published, Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I’m Grounded, takes this approach. Many parenting books use a negative situational approach; they state a problem a parent or child may have, and then work to find a solution; no book can contain even most of the situations a family may have. Messengers in Denim is based on fundamental principles which apply to all families. Finally, Messengers in Denim, is not a how to parent book, but rather a how to be a parent book. There is a big difference.
What kind of things do you discuss? The real kids in Messengers talk about many of the things they have encountered that make their life better or worse, or things that they are concerned about: family meals, pets, TV, ADHD, peer pressure, attitudes and habits, sex, porn, religion, trust, role-modeling, and much more. The scientific community and I take it from there.