Why Doesn't Anybody Like Me?: A Guide To Raising Socially Confident Kids - Softcover

Marano, Hara E

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068814960X ISBN 13: 9780688149604

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 1998

Synopsis

A parent's love is absolutely essential, but there comes a point when it alone is not sufficient -- when the epiccenter of acceptance shifts from home to school, from family to peer.

This practical, persuasive guide shows parents how to raise their children so that they will be popular -- well liked by their peers. Social competence in children of all ages, Marano says, is not a luxury. Rather, it has an essential impact on a child's later life -- on his or her health, happiness, intellectual capacity, and above all, success.

But how can parents foster the qualities and skills shared by every popular child? And what can mothers and fathers do when their youngsters stumble, struggle, or suffer?

This friendly, impressively researched, and enormously informative guide explores a wide range of issues and concerns including:

• The perils of overprotective -- how to safeguard children without smothering them, and how to turn a shy boy or girl into a confident kid


• Good kids, bad kids, and outsiders -- who gets picked on, why schoolyard cruelty hurts everyone, and what a parent can do when a child is having trouble


• Peer pressure and interpersonal solutions -- how children learn to interact, from the playpen to the playground and beyond, and how parents can foster crucial social skills at every age


• Temperamanent and tantrums -- why youngster act up, from the Terrible Twos to teenage rebellion, what such behavior means in different situations, and how parents can turn conflict into cooperation

Prescriptive and practical, "Why Doesn't Anybody Like Me?" offers parents down-to-earth advice on everything from helping their children make new friends to managing schoolyard bullies. Marano's perceptive insights are powerful psychological strategies parents can use help their children build the interpersonal skills that will carry them through life that form the core of every strong friendship, every satifying marriage, and every successful business partnership.

About this title

Review

"Nobody plays with me." "All the other kids pick on me." If these are complaints your child often voices, by all means, don't just ignore it. Author Hara Estroff Marano asserts that popularity--how well your child is liked by his or her peers--is the single greatest determinant of a child's happiness and success at school. Yet wanting a child to be popular is nearly taboo in our society, with most parents stressing academic rather than social achievement as a goal.

Marano, an editor for Psychology Today, closely examines and interprets the research on children's interactions and their ability to get along with peers. She finds that kids are becoming less socially competent, and rejection--while always a powerful interpersonal force--has recently become more lethal. Socially rejected kids who have absorbed a message that violence solves problems may even avail themselves of deadly weapons. Marano stresses the importance of play in developing social skills, and decries the phenomenon of the over-scheduled child. A full third of Why Doesn't Anybody Like Me? focuses on what parents can do to help their kids improve their social interactions, and includes suggestions for dealing with bullies and assisting the aggressive child. This book will have parents eagerly turning pages, making mental notes, watching their children's interactions, and working with them to improve their social competence. --Ericka Lutz

About the Author

Hara Estroff Marano, Editor-at-Large of Psychology Today, has been writing about psychological issues for more than twenty years. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 068814960X
• ISBN 13: 9780688149604
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336