Ain't Misbehavin' Review and Giveaway

Disclosure - I am participating in the Ain’t Misbehavin’ program by Mom Central on behalf of Wiley Publishing.  I received a copy of the book to review and gift card as a thank you for my participation.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

When the opportunity came up for me to receive a book about discipline to review  I jumped at the chance.  I love getting new books to check out.  When I got this description in an email, I got even more excited.

... Ain’t Misbehavin’, is a book for theory-weary parents, who don’t have time to read an entire book, but need to flip to the page that tells them how to handle a specific behaviour.

Parenting expert Alyson Schafer has heard it all from the parents she’s worked with – tantrums, whining, sulking, cheating, lying, crying – and in her newest book, she shows parents how to stop flipping between being too firm and too permissive, but rather striking the right balance of respective yet effective with their discipline.

The book covers more than 100 common and normal kid behaviours that parents experience trouble with – the behaviours that Schafer is asked about most frequently by the parents who phone into her weekly call-in advice show, now in it’s 6^th season.


That is me in a nutshell.  I have a few parenting books on my shelfthat I have bought with good intentions, but never finished.  have paid overdue fees for many more)   I often don't have time to study and assimilate and embrace a whole new parenting philosophy when I just need a band aid.  This book is full of helpful band aids in the form of a clear, concise table of contents and charts sprinkled throughout the book.


The author of the book is a psychotherapist and employs active listening techniques to help you defuse situations and resolve conflicts respectfully without yelling.  She uses the introduction of the book to break down the different types of misbehaviour and helps decode the underlying message behind why your child is acting the way he/she is.  This information is very helpful to read, and learn, but you can use the book without reading that chapter first (but please do, it is very good)  The charts in the book break down common gaps between what parents say and what children hear and how parents can bridge that gap, and improve communication and understanding.


I tested out the book by flipping directly to the pages that outlined my biggest challenges lately to see if it lived up to it's promise of quick, easy solutions.  The first page I flipped to was one about whining.  In this section she breaks down WHY kids whine and gives you several techniques to employ to help stave it off.  I am using two out of the four regularly now and they seem to be working.  The chapter on potty training is also very interesting to me as it is helping me decode how I am possibly sabotaging my own efforts with my little trainee and how I can get us back on track.

The bedtime chapter is also really helpful as it picks up where other books about sleep challenges leave off: preschool and beyond.  As those of us with slightly older kids know, sleep strategies that you use on babies and young toddlers do not often translate into older kids and those books leave us hanging.


I was very happy to get this book and it is going to be a fixture beside my spot on the couch for a while.  I am going to check out Alyson's other books as well, since her parenting ideas seems to jive very well with mine.


Now, if you have stuck with me this far in the book review you are in for a treat.  Mom Central and Wiley Publishing have given me the chance to give a copy of the book away to one of my readers.  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me WHY you would like to have this book. The draw will be made on April 21. 

Good Luck!