Conscious Parenting Paperback – October 1, 2010

Gave as a Gift!

Lozowick's wisdom is gleamed from years of experience as a parent as well as his far reaching knowledge of human psychology as a leader of an intentional community. In conventional terms, this book will seem highly controversial and push many peoples buttons. However, you don't have to agree with everything he says to benefit from the book. A reviewer below makes the unsubstantiated claim that breastfeeding a child until five years old is child abuse. My child just stopped breastfeeding at five, and as a Father it was sometimes hard for me to get used to, BUT it has definitely Not been an abusive circumstance to my child. If anything, my daughter is a more secure individual who feels the world is a very safe loving place. She is percieved by many to be unusually intelligent, aware and extremely well behaved. Why?(all parental bias aside) because of the principals found in this book. Most people are afraid, or totally unwilling to consider such ideas. This book is filled with plenty of sound reasoning. Yes, there are some esoteric claims that even rubbed me wrong, but overall the basic ideas are completely sound. Lozowick has also done his fair share of research, so some of his claims definately do come from areas of independent research. As a parent, most of the people I have shared these ideas with are reluctant to consider them. In my opinion, they are not willing to examine their own assumptions and conditioning. This book is an antidote to such things. It will enable any honest well meaning parent to rexamine themselves and their motives, their past, etc. The concept of Bonding is too little understood in the United States. My daughter never had a stroller, we always carried her close to our bodies in a sling and I know she is the better for it. Many parents are just plain lazy, or not willing to think/feel for themselves and stand behind it. This book for the most part is heavy on common sense, which is growing rarer these days as we allow quick fixes and technology to further invade our lives. Conscious Parenting's underlying premise, in terms of methodology, is that there is no easy answer, but rather that good parenting is achieved through conscious sacrifice, total commitment and the constant willingness to own up to our own short comings. For most, that is unreasonable. But really, How unreasonable is it to Not use the television as a babysitter, and to preserve your child against the constant onslaught of violent images that flood every avenue of media. I praise Lozowick. if you do not rush to judgment, and are willing to contemplate some of his ideas over a sufficient length of time, you cannot but be richly rewarded.

While he is a little strange in some of his beliefs, such as: when delivering a child at home, to not have clothes and a mess around your room because it will somehow upset the baby!, I found most of his beliefs to be great. Most of this has been known for years but most parenting books do not want to print it for fear of upsetting people because they tried to "Tell them how to raise their kids". My sister has done many of what he has suggested, without ever reading this book and it has done wonders. her children are nothing like what I have always seen kids to be. They are polite, kind, sweet and very secure

Of course i love it...... I shot the cover :-)

thanks