The 5 Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Let go of perfect and become a transformative, positive influence in a child’s life while creating your own definition of success from developmental psychologist and podcaster Dr. Aliza Pressman.

“My go-to for how we all raise good humans, including ourselves!” —Drew Barrymore

In the age of high-pressure parenting, when so many of us feel like we’ve got to get everything exactly right the first time, Dr. Aliza Pressman is the compassionate, reassuring expert we all need—and the one whose advice we can all use. Already beloved by listeners of hit podcast, Raising Good Humans, Dr. Pressman distills it all with a handful of strategies every parent can use to get things right often enough: Relationship, Reflection, Regulation, Rules, and Repair.

The 5 Principles of Parenting doesn’t presume to tell you how to parent with “my way is right” advice because the science is clear: There’s no one “right” way to raise good humans. No matter how you were raised, how your coparent behaves, or how your kids have been parented up until now, you can start using The 5 Principles of Parenting to chart a manageable course for raising good humans that’s aligned with your own values and with your children’s unique temperaments. Whether you're in the trenches with a toddler or a tween (because spoiler alert: the tantrums of childhood mirror the tantrums of adolescence), it’s never too late to learn to use these 5 principles to reparent yourself and help your kids build the resilience they need to thrive. Through practice and normalizing imperfection, along the way you’ll discover the person you’re ultimately raising is yourself. By becoming more intentional people, we become better parents. By becoming better parents, we become better people. Let’s get started.

Dr. Aliza Pressman is a developmental psychologist with nearly two decades of experience working with families and the health care providers who care for them. Aliza is an assistant clinical professor in the Division of Behavioral Health Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital where she is cofounding director of The Mount Sinai Parenting Center. Aliza is also the host of the hit podcast, Raising Good Humans. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College, an MA in risk, resilience, and prevention from the Department of Human Development at Teacher’s College and her PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Aliza also holds a teaching certificate in mindfulness and meditation from The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Aliza is the mother of two teenagers.