The Soul of Discipline Audiobook (Free)

Within this groundbreaking book, parenting expert and acclaimed writer of the bestselling publication Simplicity Parenting Kim John Payne, M.Ed., flips the script on children’s complicated or defiant behavior and lays out an elegantly basic plan to support parents in establishing loving, age-sensitive boundaries that help kids feel secure and settled. In short: What looks like misbehavior is actually your children’s indication that they’re feeling lost, they are looking for direction and looking to about The Spirit of Self-discipline you to guide them back on course.

Payne gives parents heartwarming help and encouragement by merging astute observations with sensitive and often funny stories from his longer career like a mother or father educator and a school and family counselor. In accessible language, he explains the relevance of current brain- and child-development studies to day-to-day parenting. Breaking the continuum of child years into three stages, Payne says that parents have to play three different roles, each corresponding to one of those phases, to help steer children through their emotional growth and inevitable challenging situations:

– The Governor, who is comfortably and firmly in charge-setting limitations and building decisions for the first years up to around the age of eight

– The Gardener, who watches for emotional development and makes decisions based on careful hearing, assisting tweens to make plans that take the complete family’s needs into consideration

– The Guide, who is both a sounding board and moral compass for emerging adults, helping teens build a feeling of their life’s direction as a way to impact healthy decision making

Practical and rooted in keeping sense, The Soul of Discipline gives parents permission to become warm and nurturing but also calm and solid (not overreactive). It gives clear, doable ways of get things back again on track for parents who sense that their children’s behavior offers fallen into a troubling pattern. And on top of that, it provides healthful direction to the entire family therefore parents can spend much less hard work on outmoded, punitive discipline and more on linking with and savoring their kids.