Best Parenting Book Ever

I LOVE this book! The basic premise is that by keeping your children near you throughout the day, you can take every opportunity to train them in godliness. We can't expect our children to be well-behaved if we send them off to watch television or to play alone in their playroom while we do something "more important". (Hint: There's nothing more important.) At first glance, tomato-staking seemed like too much work. But the changes it produces!! Oh my!

Tomato-staking has worked wonders at our house. Here's the changes we've noticed:

• we enjoy each other far more than we irritate each other!
• the volume in the house went way down
• when selfishness rears it's ugly head, I am able to quickly nip it in the bud before feelings are hurt
• when pouting, whining, or crying starts, I am able to quickly and effectively teach my kids how to control their emotions (if only more adults knew how to do this!)
  
• my kids LOVE helping me out with daily chores (laundry, cooking, tidying) because we are doing it together
• more teaching and more learning take place in a day than I ever thought possible

Consistency is the secret to any good parenting technique.

Serious character flaws and bad behavioral habits, once established, are very hard to change, just like the neglected branches of a tomato plant. Catching problems now and then won't begin to make a dent in the problem. And just like th sprawling, unattended, unstaked tomato plant, your child's heart will become firmly fixed in the position it has been growing in for all the many hours in between your sporadic corrections and over the years when you've allowed outside influences and peer pressure to do your staking job for you.

~Raising Godly Tomatoes