It’s been a pleasure to read over ‘Parents Are People Too. An Emotional Fitness Program for Parents’, Katherine’s second book (her first being ‘When Good Kids Do Bad Things‘). Originally published in print by Penguin 1997, the book will soon be e-published by MetaPlume on Amazon. The book has been taken from print, to pdf, to Word, edited, checked, updated here and there, and is now back with Katherine for her perusal before publication.
Here’s the Preface from the book:
As foster parents for thirteen years, my husband, David, and I cared for a constantly changing group of children and adolescents. Sometimes two, sometimes four, occasionally six or seven children lived with us as members of our family. By the time we stopped, we had served as foster parents to a total of 369 kids.
Every one of them taught us something. But one of the most important lessons was realizing that when I handled my feelings properly, I handled the kids better. If I felt guilty or angry or anxious and let those feelings control me, the kids and I suffered.
I never found a book devoted to helping me handle my feelings so I could be a better parent. Even though my children are now grown, I have yet to see a book for parents that deals specifically with this aspect of parenting. I decided, therefore, to write this book.
My intent is to help you stay in charge of the negative feelings that accompany raising a child. This book will teach you specific skills including feeling awareness, self-soothing, distracting, focusing on what is important, disputing, giving feedback, proper expression of feelings, acceptance, and radical acceptance. These skills form my Emotional Fitness Training® program for parents. Learning and practicing these skills will help you stay in charge of your feelings. When you are in charge of your feelings, you will feel better and will find life as a parent easier and more enjoyable. This is my promise for the book and my hope for all parents.
