Victoria Carnahan - Parent to Parent: a non professional view of parenting that takes a straight forward approach to many issues faced in raising children

In Parent to Parent Victoria Carnahan shares her first-hand experiences and insights on parenting. Common sense, the emphasis of treating your child as an adult in training, and the strong notion of reap what you sowed. The author touches many fields and topics, ranging from manners, depression, suicide attempts, drugs and alcohol, watching television, single parenting, lies for protection to spanking, bonding and accountability.

As parents we struggle we our own shortcomings, the inexperience, life’s harsh reality, and our own past. No matter what may be out of our control, we can control how we respond to life’s events. The same goes for parenting. We strive for perfection, knowing we’re imperfect. When we raise our children to become accountable, productive citizens, we’ll have to treat them indeed like trainees. Respect can be taught by simply expecting and insisting on it. The Golden Rule is applicable for many of the topics that are addressed in this book, whether it’s shaking hands or showing respect to both parents, and boundaries set to our actions. Sometimes you may think the author is repeating herself, but it’s the consistency of the message that she’s hammering in your brains.

The author also shares from her own experience as foster parent. Although she gives a non professional view of parenting, I have the impression she describes a richer variety of topics than many other books in this field, whether written by professionals or scholars. Unfortunately the reviewed copy still contains a lot of grammatical errors. Carnahan would benefit from another editing round.

About the author

Victoria Carnahan raised her children to respect the needs of others while her husband was often gone on Navy deployments. In that time frame, she considered herself a married single parent. Once settled, her husband’s military career behind them, they became foster parents. Four years of integrating teens into her home she faced many challenges.

The author gave me a free review copy in exchange for my personal, unbiased review.