The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums and Raise a Patient, Respectful and Cooperative One- to Four-Year-Old: Revised Edition Kindle Edition

It actually does help to read a parenting book. My child is four, and I’ve read five parenting books over the past six months to try to find out what I can do different to correct the behavior that got him kicked out of pre-school. I was actually starting to get discouraged about children’s books in general, because while they did offer one or two things that were helpful for me to try, they still didn’t seem worth their while.But this book is really different. The first thing I liked about this book is that it’s written by a guy who actually knows kids, and by that I mean every single type of kid. He was the first one to “hit the nail on the head” so to speak, because he literally has seen it all.Secondly, he doesn’t make you feel bad about yourself or your kid. That may be a weird thing to point out, but I’ve read parenting books that took me weeks to get through because they either made me feel bad, or made me feel like something was wrong with me kid (and that I should feel sorry for him.) But this book doesn’t do that.Thirdly, the author is straight to the point. He does give scenarios of what happened with children he knows, but he doesn’t go into so much detail that you can’t figure out what he’s saying quickly. It feels like some authors only have a few good things to say so they harp on those few things several times or they stretch it out so that their book can be called a “book”. But this book was very concise and straight to the point. I never felt like I was wasting my time reading this book, because every time I sat down to read more than fifteen minutes of it, I learned at least two very helpful things to try with my child to improve his behavior.And fourth, this book actually works. It really does teach you to be “that parent” that is so good with kids that even other people’s kids will be drawn to you at places like the zoo or the park. And after you’ve tried these methods for a short time, it will seem that this “parent greatness” that you have just comes to you naturally. I think it’s because somewhere inside of us we have an instinct of how we should be teaching our kids but we get so caught up on what TV says we should do, what we see our friends with kids do, or what our parents did to us, that we find ourselves forgetting or ignoring the most natural way to parent. And this book brings it back out again.I know I said a lot just to say this: I recommend this book to parents of every child type and of any age.

I was super excited to receive this book after reading several good reviews. I started reading it with enthusiasm and took notes along the way. About 2/3 of the way through, I realized this book just wasn't for my family. We've always spoken to our daughter like a person (from birth to almost two years old now) whereas the author recommended using repitition, short phrases in loud tones, dumbing down language. It reminds me of how we speak to pets. I also didn't like the way the author took a condescending tone with parents (like we don't understand the needs of our children). Toddlers are not cave people. My kid is sharp and tackling the tough emotions that go along with learning language and motor skills. I was hoping for a shorter read with some quick tips and this just wasn't it. Trying the RIE basic principles from M Gerber with our daughter instead which teaches respect first.

I read happiest baby on the block and found that book extremely useful for my newborn so I had to try the toddler book as well.It’s an easy read and actually great to keep on hand when you need to refer to it. It also spans from 1 yr to the end of year 3 so you don’t have to read it in it’s entirety right away. What I like best is the explanation in the beginning about how to perceive our toddlers and correctly put our expectations in place. It made a great segway to understanding my little one much better and how to use the disciplinary tactics in the book.Last thing! I appreciate that the book is so easily broken down into segments and practical exercises to try on your kids. It makes the book less daunting to read and more feasible to finish as a busy parent of a toddler.

My son is 28 months old. In the past two months, he started to throw a lot more tantrums. The situation became very stressful for me and my wife. Out of desperation, I read this book.Boy do I feel ashamed of myself. I have been doing it wrong, and I must have hurt the feelings and dignity of the little guy. I wish I read this book earlier.Filled with very practical techniques, and very enjoyable to read, I would recommend this book to every parent. One of the best parenting books I’ve read so far.

I stopped after a few pages, after the author insisted that my toddler is a cave person. She is not, she is incredibly complex. Having such notion as a premise for the book defeats everything I love about parenting. Please get “The Montessori Toddler” instead.

I couldn't wait to devour this book. I read the whole thing in one afternoon and went right away to put it into practice, but each time I tried the Fast Food Response or Toddler-ese, it only pissed my son off even more and put him deeper into a tantrum. I tried adjusting my responses to hit "the sweet spot", but my repeated efforts ended in more screaming and tantrums then before ever trying any of these techniques. I tried for days and days. Adjusting and adjusting. Nothing! I tried reaching out to the customer service on the website for help. They said unless I needed help with the baby book, they couldn't help.The ideas behind this method are sound in research and discipline, and I've used these types of techniques(FFR) on my students in classrooms many times with results that were mostly positive; however, I think this was not a success because my son is just too young for some of this. It says the book is for 8mos and up, but my 13 mo-old didn't understand my FFR or Toddler-ese b/c I don't think he understands half of what I say, so telling him, "Fan! Fan! Want fan!" didn't work b/c he doesn't know if I am correctly identifying what he wants. Additionally, half the time I have NO idea what he wants or what spiraled him into a full caveman tantrum, so repeating what upset him to show him I understand is near impossible, b/c I have NO idea! So I'm left playing a huge guessing game, and in the end we both end up frustrated.I REALLY wanted this book to work, but it may just be something I have to wait for another year to try again.

Had problems with my tantrumy son and I think we are still working on it but this book was really easy to read and understand. The techniques suggested took some time for us to get use to but it is slowly working and less extreme tantrums. Would definitely recommend reading the book. I really liked the simple illustrations.

One of the best book I’ve ever read about the parenting. I highly recommend every parents or parent to be must read this and then rewrite their own rules in their house.i used all the tips and apply on my self and changed of approach to my kids. So it really worked.

can't really comment, it is what it says. Nice book though

this book is A* . it is beautifully written, clear, engaging, and humorous. loved it! so practical and beneficial.

Good book