Publisher's Synopsis
"Success" is a popular buzzword in discussions about kids. Recent books debate the term's meaning and theorise how parents can best help their children to become successful. But we're missing the larger point. We shouldn't prescribe what success is for kids. Instead, we should make sure children develop key skills they will need to become "doers" - people who proactively seek out what they want in life. RAISING CAN-DO KIDS is the first book that offers parents scientifically valid ways to raise kids who embrace the uncertain, challenging adventure that is growing up. Each chapter is devoted to a quality - Optimism, Resilience, Industriousness, Opportunism, Creativity, Camaraderie, Compassion and Street Smarts - and reveals how dominant parenting trends are curtailing these traits and citing research showing how parents can actually foster these qualities in their children. Today's parenting culture is abound with negativity and uncertainty. According to Amy Chua in The Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother, if your kid doesn't get into a private school, she/he is a failure. Madeline Levine's Teach Your Children Well argues that we need to raise well adjusted kids, but the book ignores the realities of our material world. Paul Tough's How Children Succeed cites the importance of character in a child's development, but it doesn't provide applicable and useful tactics for parents. The latest science reveals that some of the traits we admire most in entrepreneurs - resourcefulness, optimism, work ethic, creativity - are not inborn. Rather, they are transmitted from an early age and reinforced through the efforts of parents. Further, the character traits that researchers have identified and associated with entrepreneurs are upheld in child development literature as being beneficial for kids. RAISING CAN-DO KIDS makes a stunning link between entrepreneurial tendencies and child development - introducing a valuable new paradigm for parenting.
