Family & Relationships
In Your Kids Are Your Own Fault—the ideal guide for any parent navigating the intricate road of parenthood—Larry Winget touches upon all of life's lessons from being responsible with money, to discipline, to dealing with your child as a dating teenager.
"Why am I writing this book? Look around. Our kids are a mess! They are overmedicated, over-indulged, over-fed, over-weight, over-entertained, under-educated, under-achieving, under-disciplined, disrespectful, illiterate brats with a sense of entitlement that is crippling our society. And it has to change!"
Along with in-depth research and experience from raising his own kids, Winget makes sure you "don't expect to change your kids' behavior, unless you are willing to change your own." He uses the same tough love approach that has made him a bestselling author to make sure you are teaching your kids the right values to become productive adults and live a successful life. Winget tells you things you don't necessarily want to hear or admit, such as:
- You tell your kids they're special. They're not!
- You make your kids the most important thing in life. They're not!
- You turn to medicine to fix everything. Don't be lazy!
- You set a bad example. Your kids follow it.
Winget forces parents to take a good look at their own behavior and make a change. He offers five basic principles but maintains that it isn't a matter of just doing them; it is how well you do them that counts.
- Communication is the backbone of civilization and kids will learn to communicate with the world based on how they learn to communicate within their own family.
- Involvement is crucial. Know your child's friends and teachers. Know what your kids are doing and who they are doing it with.
- Education is the responsibility of the parent. It's not up to the school system to make sure your kid learns what they need to in order to be successful, healthy and prosperous. It's up to you!
- Discipline is a code of conduct by which you live. You will be challenged every step of the way— that's what kids do.
- Punishment and confrontation is something most parents dread but it is a necessary part of parenting.
Read an excerpt:
INTRODUCTION
For those of you who are familiar with my work and have read my other books, you know by now that I am a one-trick pony. This means that there is one central theme in all that I do. That central theme is personal responsibility. In my first book, Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life, I emphasized my theme in terms of personal development. In It's Called Work for a Reason! Your Success Is Your Own Damn Fault, I exploited my message of personal responsibility in the area of business. Then I used it again in You're Broke Because You Want to Be: How to Stop Getting By and Start Getting Ahead in the area of personal fi nance. I followed that up with The Idiot Factor: The 10 Ways We Sabotage Our Life, Money, and Business. In that book, I once more pound home the idea that you must take control of every area of your life, stop blaming others for your problems and be willing to do whatever it takes to create the life you want. Four books with the central theme of personal responsibility. I am back again to harp on that theme, this time in the area of parenting. Our society is a mess today and will only get worse because parents are not taking responsibility for teaching their kids the principles of how to lead successful, productive lives. That trend has to stop and stop now! My intention is to turn that cycle of destruction around in this book.
"I HAVE GREAT KIDS, LARRY. I DON'T NEED THIS BOOK."
I know you have great kids. All kids are great. And if you don't believe it, just ask their parents. Rather than argue that point, I am going to give in and just say all kids, in the beginning, are great kids. Kids come into this world as blank slates that you, the parent, get to write on. Whatever you write on that slate will determine whether your great kid will turn into a great adult or whether he will become a leech on society. So while your kid is a "great kid," that isn't really the point, is it? The real point is to teach your kids to become the best adult version of themselves they can be.
