Playful Parenting - Lawrence Cohen

[PreferredPlanet]

Is this really as good as the reviews say? I'm tempted to buy it to try and diffuse arguments etc with my DC, but I read there's a big emphasis on "roughhousing" which makes me roll my eyes a bit tbh - obviously lots of physical closeness with your DC is great, but I can't be bothered with lots of tickling/wrestling etc and I'm worried the book will keep coming back to that as a cornerstone of parenting, which will annoy me somewhat tbh!

Anyone read it and would like to comment? Thanks!!

Haven 't read it but sounds interesting. Maybe get it and read on the sly, that way if you don't like what it says, don't show it to DH!! You might be won over though. I have 2 girls and love the physical way DH plays with them, (that I don't), I think it builds their body confidence.

I was hugely disappointed tbh and I'm returning my copy to Amazon.

Nothing new to me - play with your kids, be silly and playful, all that sort of stuff.

I really liked it. There is a lot of mention of "rough housing" but it's not the only thing it talks about. I found it quite interesting with regards to how and why kids play. How they use play to process things.

Need to dig it out and have another read now DD is a bit older actually.

I'm half-way through it but have found some of it helpful eg how play type stuff can help them deal with things that have happened to them during the day.

I'd buy it, treat it carefully & sell it on again if you don't think it's worth keeping.

I'm half way through it too. When I started it I loved it and it made me feel really positive about parenting. It has a lot more than just rough housing in it. Now I'm a bit further on I am starting to think "yes ok you can use play to diffuse situations but how do you use it to teach appropriate behaviour". For example in one episode he talks about how a child finds a toy gun and he, rather than playing a bang bang game, changes it to the 'love gun' and plays a game that allows lots of bonding. Great if what you want is bonding but what if what you want/need is to teach your child never to point a gun at someone.
I will persevere with it though because even if he doesn't have all the answers he certainly had some good and inspirational ideas and I have consciously started approaching situations in a much calmer, relaxed and upbeat manner since reading the first half (imaging how amazing I'll be once I've read the whole thing!!!)