I Like This Book

I can't remember if I've mentioned this book on my blog before, so I'm going to give it a post of it's own, just in case I haven't. A little over a year ago a friend in Texas introduced me to a great parenting book. It's called The Parenting Breakthrough: A Real-Life Plan to Teach Kids to Work, Save Money, and Be Truly Independent, by Merilee Browne Boyack. The whole premise of the book is a plan to help your kids, starting at age 3, to learn the skills they need to know to be able to leave home at age 18 or 19 and function successfully and independently--household chores, oil changes, money management, etc., etc. This book covers everything from chores to family responsibilities to hygiene to allowances to investing to Gospel teaching to service to family vacations to sports to music lessons and so on. It might sound pretty broad, but I think that's part of what I like about it. It gives some specific examples and suggestions, but the real value is in the principles of parenting that it presents. I may never figure out how to make the entire plan (part of my Plan with a capital P) work for my family, but there's lots of helpful, wise ideas there that I can pick and choose to apply according to our family's needs. I'm re-reading this book and I keep going back to it as a reference. If you have time to read one book before summer vacation starts, I highly recommend it.