I’ve always been a little skeptical of self-help books and courses. Granted, there was a time in my twenties when I was all about the self-help books but, much like Bridget Jones plunged her pile of books into the bin, so I (somewhere near my thirtieth birthday) packed all of them into a box. Yes, even “He’s just not that into you” (it may have had something to do with the fact that, when I was reading that, he was actually that into me. Haha).

 

Anyway, I digress. Earlier this year, my kid had to do a set of worksheets that centred on figuring out her own Love Languages and those of her family . I really enjoyed the experience and it piqued my interest in the whole school of thought. Our individual quiz results that ascertained our particular love languages were pretty interesting – mostly because – as it turns out – my kid and I share the same primary love language.

That’s why I was thrilled when this book got delivered to me – The 5 Love Languages of Children. Since doing those quizzes, I’ve tried to remember my kid’s primary love language more and more when considering my parenting, and I’ve enjoyed keeping that perspective.

Penned by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, The 5 Love Languages of Children focuses on applying the principles of love languages to your parenting and raising children in accordance with their primary love languages. It also includes nifty, short tips on how to deal with particular situations, in a supportive way that aligns with your children’s love languages.

The authors also cover a more-important-than-ever topic – discipline. As a parent, I’m known for being a helicopter-strict-mom (and am unashamedly so!) but I also believe in discipline, not punishment. What’s the difference? That’s easy – discipline, to me, is an act of love that seeks to train a child in the ways of life (and, yes that does include actions being linked to consequences). It is a way to teach, not to punish. I appreciated this book for its approach on discipline, especially in light of the love languages. This line struck home for me:

“Love looks out for the interests of others, so does discipline”.

There are also sections on “Learning and the Love Languages” and a very on-point section on “Speaking the Love Languages in Single Parent Families”.

As a parenting resource, I’d recommend this book a thousand times over. I enjoyed its exploration of applying children’s love languages in a variety of situations and I’m really quite glad I got to read this!

Thanks to the lovely Cherilyn Murphy for arranging me a copy of this great book to review! You can purchase the book here. 

And here comes the best part – I’ve got two copies of this fantastic book to give away to my lovely readers. To enter, simply leave a comment below, telling me what your favourite childhood memory is. Winners will be chosen from a hat by my kid and I’ll put up a video announcing the winners. Please note that this competition is open only to South African residents. Closing date for this competition is 26 May 2014.

This competition is now closed. The responses I received for this competition were so heartrending. Some made me grin, some made me sob! Thank you for sharing your precious childhood memories with me! 

The winners are:

Stacey and FabulousMommy!

I’ll be in touch shortly via email to arrange

delivery of your prize!