The Available Parent Review and GIVEAWAY!! **ENDED**

 

Raising children is hard. From what I hear, raising teenagers is even harder. The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens and Tweens by Dr. John Duffy (Viva Editions)  is written for parents who want to be the best parent possible to children who are not exactly children, not quite adults.  If you speak to many parents of teenagers, they will tell you they feel like they are a new parent again. Techniques, like hugs and talks, worked great for years and now all of a sudden their attempts at affection and asking about their child's day are met with disdain.

Dr. Duffy is a family counselor and has put together his experience and best advice into this book.  Although my kids are still young, I do find myself dreading the day when the hormones start kicking in and I am no longer the most important person in the world to them. The book does a really nice job of calming anxieties and showing parents how their own thought processes contribute to the tension. It takes you through common techniques for handling teens and explains why they will or will not work.  It encourages the parent to not shy away from their teen and fear them, but rather enjoy their journey into adulthood.

The book is easy to read and enjoyable. I found it to be very helpful in decreasing my anxieties about the pending teenage years. The book will be sitting on my bookshelf and I will be sure to read it again when I really need it a few years from now!

Buy it here:  The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens is available in soft cover format from book stores for $15.95 . It can also be purchased from Amazon on a discounted price.

Win it here: One lucky Cake Mom reader is going to win a copy of The Available Parent!

**Please read the rules**
This is open to US residents only. You must complete the mandatory entry before completing optional entries. Each optional entry needs to be added as a separate comment. Comments that do not follow the rules will not count and will be deleted. PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR EMAIL IN THE COMMENT if your comment is not in your profile! Only one set of entries per household.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me why you want to win.

Optional entries: Leave an additional comment for each entry. For example, if you blog about this contest, leave 3 separate comments!
 1. Follow my blog (publicly)
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3. Grab my button and post a link to your blog
4. Blog about this contest (with a link to my blog) and post a link to your blog (3 entries)
5. Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this contest (can be done daily). You must place a link to your tweet.
6. Enter another one of my contests. Enter as many as you like, but this method is only worth 1 entry regardless of how many you enter.
7. Like Cake Mom on Facebook (2 entries)

 The winner will be selected on 6/24  via random.org and will be emailed (once I get back from vacation). The winner will have 48 hours to respond.



I was provided with the above mentioned products for the purpose of facilitating this review. No other compensation was received and the views expressed here are my own. 

Congrats to Mama Zen! You have been emailed.