Blog tour: Understanding Kids

Welcome to the Understanding Kids blog tour, which includes three books thar I had the privilege to review. Keep scrolling to find out more about each book...

More on the books…

The Friendship Maze

Friendship battles among children have existed since the words ‘you can’t play with us’ were first uttered in the playground.

But the concern today is that unkind and excluding behaviour appears to be starting sooner than ever – even in nursery school.

By bringing together the latest social science on friendship for the first time for a UK audience, parenting author Tanith Carey peels back the mystery of children’s relationships so parents can guide their children better.

What’s My Child Thinking?

For this unique new book, Tanith and Angharad have pulled together the most important aspects of research and advances made in child development, which up to now, hasn’t been available to parents.

Designed for time-pressed parents, it allows mums, dads and carers to quickly and accurately interpret their child’s behaviour in the moment in more than 100 different challenging situations - and give the best science-based solutions, without having to wade through text and opinions

There are also practical survival guides dotted throughout which offer more detailed information and key principles to follow when dealing with more complex issues. These include shyness, coping with birthday parties, hitting and biting, travelling in a car and eating out. Complicated situations like separation and divorce are also included.

What’s My Teenager Thinking?

Are your child’s teenage years more challenging than you ever imagined? Do you struggle to know how to respond when your child says: ‘I hate you!’, ‘Get out of my room!’, ‘My life is over if I don't get these grades’ or ‘Do I look fat in this?’

At a time when our teenagers face unprecedented challenges to their mental health, it’s more important than ever for adults to find better ways to understand and connect with adolescents. What’s My Teenager Thinking? by parenting author Tanith Carey and clinical child psychologist Dr Angharad Rudkin, is a new kind of book that takes a unique approach.

More on the authors…

Tanith Carey is an award-winning UK journalist and author who writes on the most pressing challenges facing today’s parents. Her eight previous books have been translated into 15 languages, including German, French, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Turkish. Having spent time working in the US as an editor and writer before returning to the UK, Tanith has insight on both sides of the Atlantic and her writing has featured in a wide range of publications, including the Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and New York Daily News. Tanith also appears on TV and radio programmes, such as NBC Today in the US, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and You and Yours, ITV’s This Morning, the Lorraine show, and Good Morning Britain. Tanith has two daughters (16 and 13).

Dr Angharad Rudkin is a Clinical Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She has worked with children, adolescents, and families for over 15 years. Angharad has an independent therapy practice and teaches Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Southampton. She regularly contributes to articles on child and family wellbeing for national newspaper and magazines, and is a relationship expert for London’s Metro daily newspaper. Angharad appears on TV and radio regularly as an expert on child and family issues.

My thoughts…

When my wife and I were expecting our baby, and in the first year of her life, I accumulated quite a lot of parenting handbooks. A few have turned out to be useful, especially those about nutrition, but I struggled – and subsequently rehomed – those about children’s behaviours. Now, I don’t find big tomes without pictures daunting, but when you are facing a tantrum or a difficult situation, what you really need is something that is easy to navigate and that gives you practical advice.

In short, I have found my parenting Bible! Or, in this case, my parenting Bibles. These books will guide me through ages 2 to 18 and, while I don’t expect them to have covered absolutely everything (an idea for future editions of the book: ‘You are not even my mother’ says the teenager to her lesbian, non-biological mother) the hundreds of scenarios they present seem to be pretty exhaustive.

All three books are complemented with useful notes, references, bibliographies and indexes, which make them easy to navigate. Plus, the illustrations and the gentle colours are very pleasing to the eyes. As I said, while not being essential, these elements help the books feel more accessible and less intimidating.