5 comments about What to Expect When You're Expecting, 3rd Edition.

1. While this book is filled with information, it's mainly a list of things not to do when you are pregnant. If you don't care for humor or entertainment in your pregnancy book, then this is the book for you.



2. This is my first pregnancy at 36 years old. A friend of mine let me borrow this book after I'd already read a whole bunch of Your Pregnancy Week by Week. I like that one much better. I found it an easier read. What to Expect When You're Expecting, is good but the picture of the pregnant lady on the front of this version is scary. This is the one I was lent. She looks tired and sad. I hate that! It make me feel like I will be tired and sad if I read it. I guess they thought she looked peaceful, but I think she is sorry and sad. Too much information for me. I guess I'd already found so much on the Internet and from reading the Week by Week book that I felt like I was having to read too many things that didn't pertain to me. It's organized that way to include all possibilities within each week.



3. I picked up "What to Expect" the moment I found out I was expecting. At first, I thought I should read it cover-to-cover, and then realized how big it was. That quickly turned into reading the month-by-month scenarios, which gave me a little something to look forward to as I crossed into each month... until I figured out there was a world of websites out there that did the same thing, and they sent it to my email automatically! This book has very little sense of humor, and really is a worst-case-scenario synopsis. I have been using it lately as more of a guide book for a specific question (i.e. can I eat ____, etc.) but then I still turn around and look up the same question on the web. I would recommend Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, or Hello, My Name is Mommy over this book any day! My partner actually asked me, as his nose was in a Dad-To-Be book, what I was learning about how to take care of a baby, and I replied NOTHING! You have to get the next WTE book for that! He then took me to the bookstore to find a replacement. I'd join the website and save your money from the book. Same info a lot cheaper.



4. If you plan on having a natural birth this is possibly the worst book to ever hold in your hands. It creates much anxiety for the expectant mother and is not worth reading. It addresses common problems a mother may encounter during pregnancy but offers no simple solution. This is a medically biased book. It is more likely that a women will encounter the c-section knife after reading this book by being seduced by its many lures towards excessive trust in medical professionals. It gives absolutely no confidence in the mother to give birth the way mothers have done for thousands of years. Also the website is very demeaning. I visited the forums on the website and many of the women are conformist to the medical system and do not realize that doctors are hiding the truth about a women's ability to give birth naturally. The women in the forums who were advocates of What to Expect book and website were equally demeaning towards me and any mother who even considered natural home birth the old fashioned way. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK AND WEBSITE!!! It will save you a lot of problems in pregnancy, family living and future births.....



5. I read What To Expect (most of it) during my first pregnancy, and I subsequently sold it at a yard sale (both copies I had). Yes, there is a lot of good information in it, but it does come across making you feel like a bad mom if you don't do most of it's suggestions. Yes, they may be what's best for your baby, but I think what you need to take with you when you're done with this book is the general rule of trying to eat healthy when you can, don't smoke, don't chance it with alcohol even though most people say a glass of wine here and there is fine, and limit (you can have a little) caffeine (face it, with morning sickness, there are some things you just can't handle, and some of those things may be the healthiest things in the world). I did think it was pretty useful for info about what you definitely should avoid (although a little extreme). Also, it has good info about normal symptoms that you may experience (constipation, pains caused by your uterus stretching, etc.) that you don't normally know about in your first pregnancy. You just have to keep in mind that sometimes, a pain is just a pain and you shouldn't panic. Overall, OK, but you should always talk to your doctor about anything that concerns you.

5 comments about Favorite Family Meals.

1. I bought this book after I saw the author on The View. I have two small children at home and I wanted easy meals to make that they would eat, along with my husband and me. i found these recipes to be easy to make and delicious! I am not a cook but this book has helped me feel less intimidated by the kitchen and actually made me feel proud that I can cook meals that the whole family eats and likes. great book!



2. Excellent, as usual. I have 3 of her cookbooks now. I started with the puree and baby food cookbooks and then we got this one. My children, 8, 4 and 9 months have all grown up on her purees and baby foods. They actually taste like food you would want to eat as opposed to most of the stage 3 meats for babies in a jar. I have never had a bad meal from her. We just tried the stir-fried chicken with broccoli from this book and I felt like I was in a chinese restaurant. It was just that good! If you have infants and toddlers or just picky eaters try her other ones too-'First Meals' or 'Top 100 Baby Purees' they are all worth it.



3. Some meals look alittle too time consuming. My son is not really into any of the recipes yet so I haven't tried too many of them



4. I ordered this book after seeing the author on TV. I was so taken by the 'images' that I bought the book. I opened the book excited to find the recipes I saw on TV but I was really disappointed when I found the recipes and I found NO pictures!
   In my opinion all recipes should have pictures especially hers because she is creating them so children will be excited enough by the images to eat the food. I also thought that her recipes could be used at any dinner party that you wanted to have a whimiscal looking dish!But if you can't see how she made them then there is no way to reconstruct the recipe as it does not tell you what you saw on TV.



5. The ingredients are very hard to find. The author is from Europe. The food is just O.K. I have made 5 dishes from it and my husband has not liked a single one. I probably won't use it anymore.

5 comments about ADVENTURES IN GENTLE DISCIPLINE: A Parent-to-Parent Guide (La Leche League International Book).

1. Hilary Flower collected suggestions and strategies from lots of different parents and presents them here. She focuses on toddlers as she says that is what new parents need. As the first-time mother of a soon-to-be two-year-old, I agree! I have several books with sound philosophy but I think this is the book that has the best concrete strategies for dealing constructively with your little ones.



2. This book is a wonderful addition to any mom's bookshelf. If you are an attachment parent, this is the way to discipline your child. Discipline is not about spanking/time-outs/etc. Disciplining is about teaching your child how to handle life and this book helps in real-life situations that we come across throughout our children's lives from babyhood to the teenager years. It is truly a wonderful book and as a La Leche League leader, I highly recommend to all attached parents out there.



3. ...from the typical "how-to" parenting book! The chapters on how to discipline MYSELF were so incredibly helpful; I found those chapters just when I was reaching the end of my rope with my preschooler and was feeling like a failure. When I was feeling like I could never live up to my mental image of what "gentle discipline" should be, to read (in their own words) how other real life parents struggle with their tempers was so comforting. I learned that I don't have to serene and saccharine-sweet to be a gentle mama.



4. This book is a wonderful book to have on hand when you are feeling discouraged or need energy to come up with creative ideas to discipline your children lovingly and gently. It is a great alternative to theory-heavy books or books that focus on our own emotional hang-ups as parents. Filled with anecdotes and stories of women's own struggles and successes, it introduces and elaborates on gentle discipline in a logical sequence of chapters.
   
   If you want to know why you build a house the way you do, you buy a book on physics. If you want to know HOW to build a house, you buy a DIY book. This is the DIY book.
   
   My only disappointment was that this book was very mother-focused, to the exclusion (it seemed) of fathers. There were precious few anecdotes by dads and almost no discussion of how fathers' special gifts could be used in the gentle family for effective discipline.



5. This book is basically a collection of tips, stories and insights from parents. The philosophy presented in the book is one of respect for children and their needs and development. I have gained insight and a few tricks from reading the book. I am going to keep it around for when we run into rough spots. The best thing about the advice given is that it isn't a one size fits all. Children and families have different needs at different times. This book will help you develop your own tools to help your children grow into responsible and caring adults.

5 comments about Beyond Behavior Management: The Six Life Skills Children Need to Thrive in Today's World.

1. It's about time! In all the years I've been dealing with children, I have never found a book that explains childrens' behavior in such a clear and understanding way.
   The book takes you through a number of chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of behavior. Bilmes does a wonderful job illustrating these in a clear manner while providing the reader with charts and tables.
   My favorite part is that she is understandable. She doesn't try confusing the reader with "big words." She gets to the point and the point gets to you. You don't need to read and reread sentences to decode them, which I found very helpful.
   I could not be happier to have purchased this book. It is a lifesaver in the classroom.
   Stephanie Anderson- California



2. This is the book I've been waiting for! It demonstrates such a wise and compassionate understanding of children and the root causes of their behavior, AND it gives loads of practical suggesions on how to actually work with kids in ways that are productive and respectful. I am a preschool director, and I bought a copy of this book for every one of my teaching staff. Jenna Bilmes goes way beyond stickers and charts and explains how teachers (or parents and other adults) can speak to children and frame activities to elicit very different responses and build social and emotional skills kids (and adults!) need to be successful and enjoy life. Thank you, Ms. Bilmes, for writing this book!



3. This book is amazing! I have been looking for a book like this to guide me in teaching children the social/emotional skills they need to thrive in my classroom and in life. It is packed full of information, sample scripts, and activities that will help you successfully implement its ideas and principles in your classroom. Although it was skillfully written for use in the classroom, parents could also learn a lot from it. It is a must read for all preschool/kindergarten teachers. Read This Book!



4. I have found this book to be very insightful in reading the behaviours of children and young people. I am a high school teacher and it is very obvious when students don't have a chance to develop these six life skills. The ideas for activities to promote the skills were fun and easy to implement and made a lot of common sense. I feel inclined to send this book to all the local small people schools. Very easy reading too. Some generalisations were made however at the end of each chapter were lists that made it easy to research further if you need to.
   Definitely a great find



5. I am beginning my first year teaching this fall, and I will have a kindergarten classroom. When I got this book I was so excited because it aligns very closely to my philosophies on behavior management. It addresses a wide range of issues that may arise and gives detailed, systematic information on dealing with those issues from a social/emotional standpoint. Besides that, the book is so easy to read and packed with valuable information--not a lot of filler material and redundancy. I literally completed this book in one sitting, because as soon as I began to read, I couldn't put it down! Since then, I have re-read several pieces from the text and appendices. I plan to use this as the cornerstone of my management system this fall.

5 comments about Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children.

1. For parents with a desire to learn more about the psychological development of their child and the profound impact of peer pressure, this book contains some valuable information. The book deals with various aspects of development such as rejection, neglect and acceptance. The book helps the reader to understand how those elements can have a psychological influence on the child and their social interaction with others.

   An extremely important section of the book deals with the school system itself and how changes need to be made to better adapt the learning environment to a childs emotional needs if the child is to development in a positive and socially acceptable manner. The book has been well researched and would be of particular interest not only to parents, but anyone invovled with the care and education of children.




2. Outatanding book! It has valuable information for adults concerning what our kids social lives are like and how to help them when there is a problem. Children can be so cruel. The book sheds light on a world we as adults don't really understand. This book is well written and easy to read. I highly recommend it!



3. Alice Miller (author of The Drama of the Gifted Child and Breaking Down the Walls of Silence) has long emphasized that if we are serious about solving society's problems, we must focus on how we treat children --- as individual families and as a cultural. This book is an excellent contribution toward that end.

   From thought-provoking observations to practical suggestions about solutions, Best Friends, Worst Enemies is an effective education about social problems that begin in childhood, but do not end in childhood. One point the authors make that interests me greatly is that when one child is being bullied by others, the majority of children witnessing the abuse will either do nothing to intervene or they will join in with the bullying. If you think that is not a reflection of the society in which we live, think again.

   As a psychotherapist and author (Embracing Fear, HarperSanFrancisco) who emphasizes personal responsibility and facing fears head on, I hope that more than just parents and educators will read this book. I think there is something here for us all to think about --- no, to do something about.




4. I guess I was expecting something more in-depth and less instructional. I am sure this is a fine book for a parent who isn't clued into how some kids are popular and some kids have no friends at all, but I was looking for a more psychological perspective.

   I did find the short sections about infants and toddlers very interesting. I think there should have been less emphasis on popularity and what it means to children. The section about people acting a certain way because of a group mentality rather than personal morals captured my attention.




5. Hi,My name is Taylor. I read Beacon Street Girls. It was a really great book. You never knew what to expect next. It was so interesting I could hardly put it down. It is a good book for any age girl. I felt like I was one of the Beacon Street Girls. I could see myself there. It is a perfect book for every girl. It has all the personalities of every girl, so anyone can relate to it. The book kept me guessing throughout the entire story. Even when I put it down I kept wondering what was going to happen next. I would highly recommend this book to any girl of any age. I know you will enjoy this and be glad you read it. I hope you will be as excited as I to read the next book and tell your friends.

5 comments about Adopting the Hurt Child: Hope for Families With Special-Needs Kids : A Guide for Parents and Professionals.

1. My wife and I adopted a 5 and 7 yr old from Russia in Sept 2004. They have been diagnosed as mildly RAD, but RAD nonetheless. RAD is Reactive Attachment Disorder for those of you just beginning a path to adoption of older children. I can say from first-hand experience of the past six months that what Keck has written is true, verified and helpful in many ways. I would highly recommend this as a read while you are CONSIDERING adopting older children, domestic or otherwise. It is best to be prepared and accepting of the conditions that you will likely face before you suddenly realize what's going on with your child(ren). Between Keck and Nancy Thomas (When Love is Not Enough), your preparation for dealing with the behaviors that will sooner or later emerge will be rewarded in your ability to maintain some sanity in your home. You are also welcome to view our online story at http://www.hakpenguin.com/adoption_news.cfm



2. I read this book twice I liked it so much. I found many books minimized the struggle of raising adopted children and focussed too much on only the positive. Although I have not raised any adopted children myself I do plan on it after I finish university. After reading many books I knew it couldn't be as flowery as they put it. Although I am sure no book could truly prepare anyone for the realities of raising childeren it can help you understand where things are comming from. If nothing else I have a greater respect for the adoptive family because of this book!!!



3. This book was very helpful. It helped me even though I haven't ever adopted. It helped me understand hurting kids more. I will buy this book! I would like to adopt older kids when I'm married. Besides I have known several foster/adopted kids. It helped me understand them.



4. This book contained things that I think all parents should know about dealing with kids and thier baggage. I have refered back to this when dealing with situations with my special needs child, if only to know that I am not alone in my struggles.



5. I thought this book provided valuable insights and gave good real life examples. I would recommend this book for anyone adopting an older child.

5 comments about The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence.

1. This book is anything but objective. While there are some good points made, for instance, position and movement during birth, the book reflects opinions of the proponents of the "natural" approach to childbirth.
   
   The notion that pain during labor is a part of the natural process and therefore should not be treated is a lunacy. The only place in a modern hospital when one can consistently hear patients' screaming of pain is labor ward. Are you going to love your baby less if you don't suffer while giving birth? Or if your baby is delivered by a caesarean? It is for you to decide. But I can guarantee that after you read this book and happen to have these interventions you will have the feeling of failure and guilt.
   
   The undertone of the book is "us" (midwives who know best) against "them" (doctors who want to use interventions). Labor at home as long as possible. Remember that your body knows how to give birth. May I add, move to some third world country where there is no evil doctors for miles around so that nobody harms you and your baby and your birth is guaranteed to follow the natural course. Never mind the high chance of dying during labor, it is also part of the natural process.
   
   It is because of modern medicine that childbirth has become safer and easier. You want to do it the way it was done during Medieval Ages? It's up to you. But at least base your decision on more information than just this book.



2. I was completely shocked at the rest of the pregnancy books and their negative tone about such a joyful time in your life. This book was a very nice book with just enough information to make you feel informed without scaring the heck out of you.



3. I read them all-no really- over 30 of the childbirth/new baby books out there and this one has changed my world. I thought I was prepared before reading this gem,but it really opened my mind and allowed me to become comfortable with my body on my own terms. There were no scare tactics. just encouragement.The writing is so smart. I checked it out from my local library at about 6 months along and am due to give birth in 2 weeks. I am buying it now to reread because it made me feel so great before. Simply Amazing read for an amazing experience!!



4. This was the first book I read when I became pregnant. I loved it, found it so eye-opening, and it empowered me to seek the healthiest birth experience for me and my baby. There are great tools such as questions to ask your care-provider and potential place for giving birth. The emphasis is on evidence-based care and how to create the best possible context for your baby's birth. I highly recommend this book to all pregnant women, especially those interested in natural birth or just being better educated about our maternity system and how you can navigate it.



5. The authors of this guide have a less-is-more approach to childbirth: medication, surgery and OB-GYNs all get a bum rap, while midwives and natural childbirth techniques are constantly praised. For some readers, that will come as a breath of fresh air, and even skeptics will come away with plenty to think about.
   
   Sadly, though, the authors have a tendency to present a deeply - and occasionally dangerously - one-sided view of many of the issues they discuss. A case in point: the authors relegate their cursory discussion of prenatal vitamins to a dismissive paragraph or two, in which they entirely fail to mention the serious health risks associated with folic acid deficiencies. Troublingly, the authors actually misrepresent the findings from the source they cite in this instance: research which they claim suggests there's no evidence in favor of prenatal vitamins actually strongly recommends the use of certain individual vitamins.
   
   The authors make similar, overly-sweeping generalizations about issues like prenatal testing, C-sections and the OB-GYN/midwife decision. In short -- this book's a useful starting point if you're looking for a fresh perspective, but approach it with caution, and be sure to do your own homework.

5 comments about Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive.

1. To me the main value of this book was its advice about dealing with the perfectionism of a gifted child. Gifted-parenting books frequently bring up the problem of perfectionism, but I have not found much useful advice for dealing with it. Dr. Klein offers some practical suggestions and the insight that former gifted children may have their own perfectionist tendencies to reckon with.



2. There is much to like about "Raising Gifted Kids". The author offers some very helpful advice for those of us facing the challenge of raising an intellectually gifted child. I particularly appreciate her focus on being a "good enough" parent rather than trying to be a "perfect" one.
   
   The biggest issue I had with Dr. Klein is her elitist tone. She is an educational consultant who obviously has a well-heeled clientèle. The impression she gives in her book is that all gifted kids come from affluent families, which is not the case. She describes each of the parents profiled in the book as "So-and-so, a successful/prominent/stellar/up-and-coming/etc. investment banker/attorney/surgeon/executive/etc." The parents' occupations are not relevant to the point she's trying to make, so why even mention them? She also has a tendency to mention luxury items in passing as if they're a normal part of everyday life. Perhaps everyone in Dr. Klein's social circle has a housekeeper and a gardener and takes travel "adventures" and enrolls their kids in multiple enrichment classes. But I personally found her elitist tone very off-putting.



3. As a mom of a child who is about to be 4 and is reading at a first grade level, I found this book fascinating and comforting. I really enjoyed how the author really makes you consider your own background in education and encourages you and your spouse or partner to get on the same page. It also has explained some of my son's behavior. I do have two negatives, though. The first is that it doesn't offer an appendix listing contact resources for gifted parents, like parent support groups and such that can be found around the country. That would be extremely helpful. Also, the author mandates parents really have to expose gifted children to a lot of experiences to maximize their potential. This could include travel, museum visits, and even extra classes. This all adds up to a lot of money that may not be available to all parents of gifted children. A parent in that situation may be discouraged by reading this book, especially since the case studies seem to all involve more wealthy parents. However, I do plan to rely on this book as a resource as my child grows older.



4. I am an Aunt to a gifted child and this book has really helped me "get" my niece and her world. Thank you, Dr. Klein!



5. It was a decent book, but not a lot of new information for me. For the most part, it simply confirmed some basics I have long believed in - not living out your dreams through your children, encouraging exploration without forcing achievement, the need to provide for additional means of learning, etc. A lot of time spent on selecting schools for gifted kids, which really doesn't apply in small towns like we live in. Some good chapters on different kinds of gifted children and some scattered teaching methods. A lot of "real life" examples stretched across several chapters that in my opinion became a scattered approach.
   
   Probably the most novel idea that came across was that it's better to be a "good enough" parent than a perfect one. By Klein's opinion, if you manage to be the perfect parent, you set a standard so high that your child will have anxieties trying to live up to your example. Not sure I'm 100% with that, but it is an interesting take on parenting.

5 comments about Men Who Can't Love: How to Recognize a Commitmentphobic Man Before He Breaks Your Heart.

1. I was driving myself CRAZY trying to figure out what I had done wrong because my boyfriend of 2 years had just sent me roses for our 2 year anniversary and 11 days later broke up with me and was seeing someone else less than a week later. I read this book and oh my gosh I could not believe that this book should have been written by my boyfriend because everything was him to a T!!! If you are stressing about what you could have done differently stop doing that and read this book. You will then see that it wouldn't matter what you had done or not done it wouldn't have mattered AT ALL because it is his problem not yours. It does hurt to know that you fell in love with someone that you couldn't have had from the start and you spend so much time trying to be everything he may want you to be and it is all in vain. READ THIS BOOK!!!



2. i read steven carter's book over five years ago. it was the first book i read when my relationship with my boyfriend started going south. at first, it seemed to have all the answers. he displayed the behavior described in this book.
   
   looking back five years, i feel this book really sent me down a dangerous path. turns out my boyfriend was not "commitmentphobic" he was psychopathic.
   
   calling what i endured a "phobia" is irresponsible. a phobia can be overcome. a phobia is harmful only to the person experiencing it.
   
   sometimes these relationships can be WAY more complicated and dangerous than a fear of spiders or high places...
   
   many many people diagnosed with dangerous personality disorders cannot commit. it's way more complicated than carter would have you believe.
   
   carter, in my opinion, simply gathered up stories from suffering women and reprinted them in a book. he provides no insight, no advice, no alternatives to his "commitmentphobic" theory. he is no licensed professional, and actually, even licensed professionals have difficulty identifying a narcissist, socio or psychopath.
   
   my gut tells me he did his followup book about narcissism because so many women contacted him about commitmentphobia and suggested narcissism to him. a little search on the web and viola! carter had his new book on narcissism - probably a weak attempt to repair the damage he did with his phobia theory.
   
   this book is a waste of time and dangerous. it will provide no answers. don't trust carter with your mental health.
   
   it took me five years to find the answers, after following carter down the wrong path. i finally found the answers i needed in two books - "the sociopath next door" and "without conscience."
   
   people with serious personality disorders aren't all serial killers. experts say 1 in 25 people is a sociopath. it just means they have no conscience, and can do anything without guilt.
   
   if your partner emotionally tortures you - i recommend you take a look at these books. "commitmentphobia" makes a joke out of something that could destroy you.



3. I should have known better. The profile of the commitmentphobic that I spent more than 7 years with was a never-married man who had had 4 children by 3 different women when I met him. He had never even been engaged to any of them! No commitment. This book opened my eyes to commitmentphobia. Before reading this book, I did not know that this was a true phobia. I also learned from reading this book about the different stages of the commitmentphobic relationship. Ours fit it to a tee! Be careful of the man who sweeps you off your feet. It is also critically important to honestly examine your own self to find out what attracted this kind of man to you in the first place. The advice in the book was invaluable. In sum, it says that the only thing any self-respecting woman can do with a commitmentphobic man is to get out of the relationship as soon as possible. He will try to come back! This is the "curtain call" stage of the relationship where he will try to go back to stage one and begin the whole saga over again. My commitmentphobe went so far as to break down and eventually give me an engagement ring, buy an expensive home, fail to move into the new house, and then refuse to set a wedding date. He simply could not do it -- just as the book says. He provoked me to leave -- a commitmentphobic's strategy that the book describes in detail. I consider this book an answer to my request for healing. Just knowing what I was dealing with has helped me tremendously. My worst-case commitmentphobic man now approaches the ripe old age of 60 and still has never been married! This is an important book to read as many woman don't know that they need to protect themselves from these kinds of men who will linger in your life forever in a relationship that is going nowhere -if you let them. Read the book and be set free.



4. I was distraught over the end of a relationship I thought was fantastic...four months of bliss and connectedness, he said he wanted to be my best friend, move closer so it would be easier to spend time together, he adored me, he was smitten. Then, let's take a step back, and a week later, he never returned my phone calls.
   
   I was an emotional wreck for several weeks - crying constantly, talking about it and looking online to see what I could find out about this behavior. I thought there were things I should have done, things I could have done to prevent this - I was really beating myself up. I found several books on Amazon and ordered them, in order to learn what I had done to destroy the relationship.
   
   I have to say this book has given me such clarity and peace of mind. Men Who Can't Love explains this pursue/panic behavior the best, and I am so ready to move along and not willing to waste any more time on a man who can not get past feeling trapped by love. A man who does not exhibit commitmentphobia may move slowly, but he will keep moving in the same direction.
   
   Just remember that he's just as afraid to commit to yes as he is to committing to a no, so don't get pulled back in. Put yourself first.



5. I just finished this book and sat right down to write this review. This book is very well-written. It is laid out in an itelligent fashion from beginning to end. One reviewer here mentions that there are too many personal testimonites, but I didn't think so. In fact, I don't know how the author was able to come up with so much content for the book WITHOUT doing so. The author has a very firm grasp on this topic. Expertise doesn't begin to describe it. I allowed myself to underline and make notes - related to my own recent relationship with a commitmentphobic man. I only dated that guy six weeks but I saw a lot of him in this book. I can't even believe some of the things the author said... stuff that might as well have come straight from MY mouth.
   
   My biggest OMG moment came on page 275. "Even at the Bitter End, he is giveing mixed and distorted messages - he seems almost incapable of giving you an honest, straightforward statement of either his feelings or his intentions." I know that quote sounds slightly elementary (like you could have composed it yourself) but that is EXACTLY what happened in my situation.
   
   Again, I only dated my CP for six weeks. The author pointed out TWO things that Steve did that were so incredibly specific... we're talking the Princess and the Pea here. This author can spot a CP from a billion miles away. When Steve and I would cross the street at an intersection, he would walk a lot faster than me and not hold my hand. Then he would stop, turn around and call me a slowpoke. The other example blew me out of the water. The author said that there can be tell-tale signs in a man's home that he doesn't want to get too close or eventually marry. One thing that really bothered me was that he never cleaned his bathroom. His house was the house he grew up in and I don't know how many years previous his mother moved out. The toilet had streaks of black all around the inside bowl. It was mold. His shower was worse. I couldn't even look at it. The book said, "he has a bathroom that no woman in the world would want to use." I just about DIED. Yep! This book nailed Steve in his little six-week buttocks. Even he couldn't escape the radar of the CP Expert, Steven Carter.
   
   This book is worth WAY more than the cover price. It has helped me a lot. More importantly than getting over this relationship, this book will help me to recognize future CP's and spare me untold amounts of pain.

5 comments about Playing, Laughing and Learning with Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Practical Resource of Play Ideas for Parents and Carers.

1. Great resource with lots of practical and usable ideas. I would highly recommend for young children on the spectrum.



2. I found this book to be a great resource. It's a very gentle, child-centered way to promote interactive play with children on the spectrum. The examples are creative and easy to follow and most of the materials you can make yourself. Highly recommended!



3. I thought that this was a great book. it really focuses on younger children, most other books that I have read are geared towards older kids. There were a lot of practical ideas and simple things that you could do with your child.



4. There was some good info in this book, but mostly common sense. I am a early childhood teacher with a child with autism, and most of this is common practice in early childhood. It does give you a reason for the skill difficulty in children with autism, then gives you some ideas. not bad.



5. there are a few good ideas in this book, not exactly for me, but perhaps for others. I always find that it seems that they reach to hard to try and fill these types of books with activities, just take the concepts here and apply to each individual child is what I say!