How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7

Gentle, respectful, yet practical and realistic. It has made my life much happier and easier! There are numerous tools in here which REALLY WORK and take a bit of practice, but it's worth it. The tools preserve the relationship between you and your child, yet enable you to protect your own feelings, desires and boundaries. I read the audiobook version and I love it - it had me laughing out loud throughout. I feel like the authors "get" where I am coming from and have solutions to my daily struggles with my 2 and 4 year old. Easy to read (listen) in this format, not having much time, I mainly listened in the car or when cooking etc. Fairly long book but the main points are in the first few chapters. The only area which I felt it hasn't helped massively was sleep (The Holy Grail!!) - there is a chapter devoted to it but there wasn't anything in there I wasn't already doing. Having said that, applying the other tools in the book generally through the day has improved bedtime struggles a bit and most importantly, I am coping with those struggles better.

but completely recommend it already. I bought the kindle edition on a whim because our toddlers just turned 2 and the book was just £2.50. Let me tell you, I'm just about 50 pages in, and have already used two tips from the book. First we ran out of bananas. I was looking at a complete meltdown and in reaction I used one of the first things mentioned in the book: Write a shopping list. My husband thought I was crazy, but within seconds meltdown was averted, and my daughter was just happily pointing at the word Banana and my bad drawing on our list. Next day, another meltdown because breakfast wasn't ready fast enough. So I went all over the top, just like the book recommended. "Noooooo breakfast isn't done yet! And we really need that bread! Oh noooo look at this I'm almost done!" Meltdown stopped, my daughter just looked at me as if I'd grown a second head, then again happily waited until food was ready. I have also noticed I stopped asking my daughters so many questions. I just make statements. Instead of "Did you hurt yourself? What's going on?" I just say "Oh that has hurt!" and then listen to them for a second. Even that slight change in my behaviour makes such a big difference in the way our twins are reacting and dealing with things, just like the book says. All in all, it is really easy to read, and gives great tips on how to deal with small people. I am so happy I bought it. Completely recommended.

It’s a great book for parents of young children. I only wish it had MORE examples with situations. As I personally really struggle to find words in situations when little one throws a tantrum. It has lots of examples and sometimes they WORK! But as it’s said in a book toddlers are human beings and you can’t always win a battle🥲

I absolutely love this book and continue to reflect back on its key takeaways to help me embed the principles. I didn’t realise how much I was dismissing my 3 year old son’s emotions until reading this; the framing of an adult conversation really helped clarify and see how I needed to change my responses. It seems so obvious, yet I was stuck in my ways of a playful reply of ‘ah you don’t hate it, you had it yesterday’ not realising the harm it was doing. Within the first day of reading, I tried out some of the tools to try and get him to sit down to eat…and it worked, no more questions, no more running off to play, just willingness and acceptance. Surely this was a fluke. I continued over the following days to keep thinking back to the principles and try to implement them. It was a struggle in the moment as my brain wouldn’t always pick the right approach and remember what I had read (Mel Robbins ‘Let them theory’ came in handy a few times) but I would eventually figure out and remember the right type and they really helped. My biggest takeaway and reason I continue to reflect back on this though is that within the first week, there was a situation where my 3 year old was about to build up and get upset but using the steps and tools of the first section I recognised this and simply accepted his emotions instead of my usual palming off reply…and I’ll never forget the pause and look on his face as he finally felt that acceptance and clearly felt heard. I felt so mean that he clearly hadn’t felt this way before, yet so happy I now had this awareness moving forward. Physically seeing how much weight I took away in that moment has made me realise how something so small in my world makes such a big difference in his world; something highlighted throughout the book. This along with insight on how a simple rephrase of praise can have such a positive/negative impact on their future actions, I would 100% recommend this book to not only parents/guardians but any adult interacting with children. Our actions really do make a big difference.

I think this is the best parenting book a parent can have.Using some simple advice from it and you will see the difference between you and your kids.

This book has literally been revolutionary in the way myself and husband parent our 4 year old daughter. We were really struggling with her behaviour and with baby number 2 on the way we knew we needed to do something about it ASAP. The techniques in this book have helped massively. She now expresses how she is feeling through words and not lashing out and tantrums have almost stopped, and any that start to develop are quickly stopped before they escalate. The techniques are backed up with real life experiences from other parents and pointers on how to use them in lots of situations which we found super helpful. The techniques do take practise (not all of them will come natural to you!) but they do work. We found it helped that we were practising the techniques as a couple and both had read the book within a short timescale.

The best parenting book I have read so far. I’ve used so many of the tools and advice from this book with my 2 year old and they’ve had such a positive impact on my parenting and my child’s emotional stability. We’ve had little to no terrible two meltdowns and this book has definitely helped us both to de escalate ant issues that may be bubbling. I’ve bought it for 2 friends since!

I have an explosive little 2 year old - he tantrums every day, hits, bites and is very sensitive and strong willed. I have seen this book recommended by other parents and on online forums. This book has really useful tools for problem solving with children but sadly a lot of the tools require the child to be verbal and/or literate. Often the solution to most conflicts is to sit down after the event and write down a list of ways to resolve the problems and the agree between you and your child the best course of action. Sounds like a good way to resolve issues but pretty much impossible with a 2 year old. It even suggests drawing pictures about feelings but again, my toddler's drawings are just swiggly lines, he doesnt try to draw objects. The books suggests naming feelings and not dismissing your child's feelings. These have been useful just now but there are no other tools in this book to actually help whilst a toddler is tantruming. The best advice I have read was in a montessori book is just letting them ride it out, keep them safe, dont let them harm others. You will know when they have finished as they tend to let out a sigh and move on. I'm glad that I have read the book now as I feel I have tools I can use as he grows older but for my current predicament of a tantruming toddler , I'm afraid I have not found any quick fixes.