NutureShock Review & Giveaway

*********** 5 COPIES AVAILABLE ****************

When was the last time you heard someone say - “These kids today just don’t have the values that we had when we were growing up”. Perhaps, you’ve heard this - “I wish I could get my hands on that kid for 24 hours.” No matter how you phrase it, every adult has encountered a child that has misbehaved or chosen a path of self-destruction. Identifying the problem is just the beginning but interpreting the myriad of meanings is what NutureShock sets out to accomplish.

NutureShock, named one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2009, sets a central premise of how many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring.  Many of the arguments are based on science or rather an overlooked evaluation of science. For example, Bronson and Merryman noted that preschoolers are displaying a pattern of becoming relationally aggressive, a term used to describe children who aggressively seek to destroy relationships.  That is to say that during times of conflict preschool children were doing things that compromised the relationship such as withdrawing friendships, telling lies about another child or simply ignoring the child who wanted to play instead of conflict resolution that allowed the friendship to stay intact. The findings were linked to the educational programming for preschoolers.

”The more educational media the children watched, the more relationally aggressive they were. They were bossy, controlling and manipulative by watching PBS, Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel.”

It’s no surprise, the study found that 96% of all children’s programming includes verbal insults and put downs.  The lesson from those programs are often one-sided. The producers create a conflict in an effort to show right from wrong and how to forgive etc. They never pick up the reactions of those characters during the conflict. This is the part that carried over into real life situations among preschoolers.

NutureShock contains scientific studies and analysis for children all ages including teens and across cultures.  Although a bit disturbing, it was found that corporal punishment among African-American families contained opposite results than that of Caucasian families. In African American families, the more a child was spanked, the less aggressive the child was over time. “The spanked black child was all around less likely to be in trouble.” This was just the opposite for a Caucasian child. These findings were never released for fear that justification for corporal punishment would become the lingering message within society.

In my childhood, I wasn’t allowed to express an opinion or talk back to my parents. Today, teens are arguing with their parents and it’s received as a way of communicating with mutual respect. Times have definitely changed but there’s still plenty of room for improvement and understanding among the generations for the future. Using the new analysis in NurtureShock, I am able to dissect what applies to my household and guide my children to live their best life as a productive citizens. At the end of the day, all any parent wants is a healthy child with great character. Character is formed by the environment, societal expectations, learned life lessons and advice. I recommend this book to all parents and education personnel. Also, this book is a great discussion tool about what’s really happening in society and with our children. Often times, book club discussions happen for a lot of fiction books but I challenge book clubs to take this on and talk about these findings and develop solutions to help their community.
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Thanks to Hachette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway.

To enter, just leave a comment sharing one of the biggest differences you see in the way children are raised today versus when you were growing up.  You must be a follower, fan or subscriber of Author Exposure.
Be sure to leave your email address in case you win.

The giveaway ends November 30th @ midnight EST. Please note that the publisher ships to US and Canada residents only. No P.O. Boxes accepted.