More than Happy: The Wisdom of Amish Parenting
$24.00
In short, this is a terrific book that cannot be recommended highly enough. More Than Happy explains the Amish culture and what fundamentals exist to help them raise such well-behaved, well-adjusted children. The best part is that you don’t have to be Amish to adapt some of these principles for your own household; most of the lessons here are changing your thoughts, changing your words, resulting in the big changes that make for a more contented family.
More Than Happy: The Wisdom of Amish Parenting by Serena B. Miller and Paul Stutzman isn’t just another parenting guide; it’s a collection of wisdom and fresh perspective to help in the raising of well-adjusted, grateful children. This book is not only full of great information; it’s a pleasure to read. It’s easy to feel that author’s affection for the topic and her tremendous amount of respect for the Amish. More Than Happy does not just shed light on the Amish, their beliefs and practices, but makes a connection between them to non-Amish cultural ideas and values, illustrating how we all, and our children, can benefit by being a little more Amish.
Additional information
| ISBN | 9781476753409 |
|---|---|
| Star Count | 5 |
| Book Author | Serena B. Miller, Paul Stutzman, Contributor |
| ASIN | 1476753407 |
| Page Count | 336 pages |
| Format | Hard |
| Publisher | Howard Books |
| Issue | February 2015 |
| Publication Date | 2015-Feb-03 |
“More than Happy: The Wisdom of Amish Parenting”
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The truth is, it really doesn’t matter what stance you take on most parenting issues. It’s all about the intangibles, the feeling of being loved that makes a difference to the child. The only topic that she takes a militant stance on is that of vaccines, because it affects people outside of the family (although, after my second daughter had a violent reaction to one of her kindergarten shots, and her little arm swelled to about the size of my thigh, I came to understand an anti-vaccine stance).
This is a great read for parents who feel overwhelmed by the chaos of parenthood or maybe just want to know that someone else has been there. I’d rate this even higher, but there’s a lot of unnecessary profanity, and that’s just not my favorite thing.
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The discussion of how children are reacting with their feelings is well supported by Ross-Glazer’s research, and although not cited in the work, I’m familiar with the background she’s using to support the concepts. The corresponding information on how adults are reacting with their thoughts is also enlightening, in particular the quote regarding the usage of “that” in I feel statements.
The exercises provided were thoughtful and useful, although I have not yet done them all. I was able to glean some new tactics for raising well-rounded, self-disciplined, and perfectly imperfect children, and look forward to working through more of the exercises with my children. The step-by-step how-tos on reacting to children by using head-heart language are already proving quite useful.
As Ross-Glazer states, parents are not perfect, and while I am not a perfect parent after reading this book, I am much improved.
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