The Procrastinating Child: A Handbook for Adults to Help Children Stop Putting Things Off - Softcover

Emmett, Rita

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802776361 ISBN 13: 9780802776365

Publisher: Walker Books, 2002

Synopsis

Parents, grandparents, teachers, supervisors, even baby-sitters, can be driven to distraction by a child's repeated procrastination. However, their distress is nothing compared to the toll procrastination takes on the child―eroding self-confidence, undermining self-esteem and relationships, increasing anxiety, and paving the way for similar behavior as an adult that can be even more costly.

Helping a child stop procrastinating is one of the best gifts an adult can share, and Rita Emmett's informative and engaging new book is the place to start. Based on her own procrastination and parenting seminars and on interviews with hundreds of people about what works and what doesn't, Emmett offers proven techniques to defuse the frictions caused by youthful procrastination. Her central point is that, far from being a character flaw, procrastination―in children as in adults―is usually a habit that can be changed.

Whether avoiding chores or homework or neglecting goals―or in dozens of other situations―children of all ages procrastinate for many reasons:

- feeling overwhelmed or confused and not knowing where to begin
- lack of motivation
- a subversive desire to assert control by not doing what's asked
- a dislike of the task
- subconscious fears or anxieties about failure
- poor time management skills

In each case, Emmett provides strategies for breaking through a child's defense mechanisms or reluctance to talk, and for establishing rules and guidelines that encourage young children and teenagers alike to face obligations in a timely way. Lighthearted and rewarding, The Procrastinating Child is an invaluable resource.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Rita Emmett, the bestselling author of The Procrastinator?s Handbook, returns with a book every parent, teacher, and caregiver of a procrastinating child needs and has been waiting for.

Children pay an enormous price, with their self-confidence and self-esteem, for procrastination. Procrastination keeps children from accomplishing short- and long-term goals and it damages their relationships with other children and adults. Without intervention nearly every procrastinating child will grow up to be a procrastinating adult.

Rita Emmett understands the damage that procrastination can have on a child, and in The Procrastinating Child draws her advice for parents, teachers, caregivers from her own childhood, her parenting seminars, and the real-life stories of people who have overcome procrastination.

Whether avoiding chores or homework or neglecting goals -- or in dozens of other situations -- children of all ages procrastinate for many reasons:

? Feeling overwhelmed or confused and not knowing where to begin
? Lack of motivation
? A dislike of the task
? Poor time management skills

In each case, Emmett provides strategies for breaking through a child?s defense mechanisms or reluctance to talk, and for establishing rules and guidelines that encourage young children and teenagers alike to face obligations in a timely way.

Lighthearted, bighearted, The Procrastinating Child is as entertaining as it is rewarding.

About the Author

Rita Emmett is a professional speaker who leads workshops on clutter and procrastination. Author of The Procrastinator's Handbook (more than 150,000 copies sold) and The Procrastinating Child, Emmett has dispensed advice on NBC's "Today Show" and in Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Family Circle, and Parents. She also publishes a monthly online "anticrastination."

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0802776361
• ISBN 13: 9780802776365
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192