Customized Parenting: Creating Easy, Intuitive Parenting Plans for Evolving Families

Working Mother contributor Gaddis (Feng Shui Mommy) helps parents identify their child-rearing values in this instructive manual. A well-tailored approach to parenting should address discipline, schedule-making, and communication style in a way that directly reflects one’s principles, Gaddis contends. For instance, a household committed to environmentalism might create rules around recycling and composting, and families who prioritize compassion could institute a no name-calling policy. Elsewhere, Gaddis encourages parents to lean on intuition as a guide when receiving unsolicited advice; for example, one might tune into physical signals such as stomach pain when considering counsel that goes against their best judgment. These skills, she notes, can be shared with children to help them do the same. Though Gaddis advises readers to do what works best for their families, she also draws on studies to help steer parents away from outdated and potentially harmful practices such as corporal punishment, citing possible connections between spanking and negative outcomes including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Writing prompts and links to guided meditation exercises are included in each chapter and will help readers bring Gaddis’s tips off the page. Parents will find no shortage of worthwhile guidance here. (Aug.)