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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Book Review - It's OK Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids

About the Book 
Parenting can be such an overwhelming job that it’s easy to lose track of where you stand on some of the more controversial subjects at the playground (What if my kid likes to rough house—isn’t this ok as long as no one gets hurt? And what if my kid just doesn’t feel like sharing?). In this inspiring and enlightening book, Heather Shumaker describes her quest to nail down “the rules” to raising smart, sensitive, and self-sufficient kids. Drawing on her own experiences as the mother of two small children, as well as on the work of child psychologists, pediatricians, educators and so on, in this book Shumaker gets to the heart of the matter on a host of important questions. Hint: many of the rules aren’t what you think they are!

The “rules” in this book focus on the toddler and preschool years—an important time for laying the foundation for competent and compassionate older kids and then adults. Here are a few of the rules:

  • It’s OK if it’s not hurting people or property
  •  Bombs, guns and bad guys allowed.
  • Boys can wear tutus. 
  • Pictures don’t have to be pretty. 
  • Paint off the paper! 
  • Sex ed starts in preschool 
  • Kids don’t have to say “Sorry.” 
  • Love your kid’s lies.


IT’S OK NOT TO SHARE is an essential resource for any parent hoping to avoid PLAYDATEGATE (i.e. your child’s behavior in a social interaction with another child clearly doesn’t meet with another parent’s approval)!

My Take on the Book
This was a fun way to look at the "rules" that you have in your own home and whether you can avoid some of the rote rules that you would typically have to instead have some unique and what the author refers to as "renegade rules". If you have young children, the idea of this book is that you step in and start these renegade rules young and let the children grow and develop with them. Some of the idea in this book were completely out of the box and there were others that were ones that I have tried myself. All-in-all though this book was a breath of fresh air and it makes you look at parenting in a completely different way! This is a must read for all parents!


All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Disclaimer  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.

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