As the parent of 4 kids (and having raised 2 others), I am an avid reader of parenting books as I seek tips and ideas for being a good father. This book has a lot of psychological reporting and survey information for those who value research-focused information over anecdotal advice. However, data must be interpreted properly to yield good advice. The basic concepts in the book: "kids are good" and "parents need to parent" is sound but not new.

The research data provides great insight into the habits of young people that often contrasts with sensationalized media stories and TV/movie dramas. There are probably more positive trends among young people than we realize; however, we must be diligent to direct children towards good decision making.

The author expounds simple truths that seem grounded with research and common sense but it mainly reinforced what I've read in other parenting books. If you want to see the latest research on young people's behaviors and related parenting principles, it is a good resource. ( )

It is always nice to read a book like this--one full of common sense packaged in a different way from how I have heard it before. Nothing brand new but good reminders. ( )

The author of 5 Simple Truths of Raising Kids, R. Bradley Snyder, has spent his career as a researcher talking to teens and studying teens’ behavior and has developed a deep understanding of how to parent a teen. He presents his findings with simple, straight forward language and easy to relate to scenarios. The message of the book is that kids are kids, kids are good, and kids need parents, adults, and communities. He presents teen behavior in a way that counters the present day belief that kids are bad. He presents statistics that demonstrate that bullying, abductions, teen violence, and drinking and drug use by adolescents are actually decreasing, not increasing like the media tells us. He addresses the fear that is so prevalent in parents and explains how that fear causes us to distrust adolescents. I cheered Mr. Snyder as I read, wishing that the book was required reading for all parents of teens, teachers, guidance counselors, juvenile justice employees, magistrates, and police officers. The book also offers simple, achievable methods for monitoring kids’ time spent watching television, playing video games, texting, and using social networks. I appreciated reading this book as a parent and will recommend it to all of the parents of teens that I work with professionally. ( )

The 5 Simple Truths of Raising Kids by R. Bradley Snyder was a quick read that many educators and parents would find quite informative and useful. As a school counselor, I appreciated the main theme of the book which is that all kids are basically good. Often times are jobs as school counselors are spent dealing with problems and issues that come up with the seemingly same ole' students. It is nice to hear validation from a well-educated author that kids are good! Things are not as bad as the media would make them out to be. Snyder provides great advice on dealing with timely issues surrounding the youth of today such as cell phone usage, bullying, television and video games. The recommendations given are easy to apply and extremely helpful to both educators and parents. ( )

The 5 simple truths of raising kids are this: Kids are Kids. Kids are Good. Kids need Parents. Kids need Adults. Kids need Communities.

For parents and others who may be shaking their heads at "kids these day," Snyder offers a positive perspective, backed up by statistics, that may be reassuring. I think it'd be a great book to give to a concerned grandparent, for example. Snyder is in marketing, and it shows. As a mental health professional-turned-Mom, I would have preferred a more balanced look at the research. Snyder chose to include the studies that fit in with his personal (pro-television, pro-video games) opinion and ignore pretty much everything else. And I never did figure out the bizarre segment on Dancing With the Stars (p. 54), which reads more like a teen essay than a book for adults, who may or may not be familiar with the TV show or the celebrities that Snyder uses as examples. So, maybe not the best choice for the grandparents, after all. ( )

This book is an easy read that covers some basic principles on how to relate to kids. The style is straight forward and recommendations balance instilling 'empowerment' and 'accountability'. I think it could be most helpful in providing conversation starters between kids' caretakers to align on the best ways to help the kids experience life. The book does not push 'identical' practices, but rather it could be used to reinforce the damage of 'conflicting' styles/expectations. ( )

As a parent of a 6-year-old and 9-year-old, I'm not quite into the demographic that this author is writing for, but it isn't far away for me. I found it to be a quick and interesting read. Most of his points are not new or revolutionary or anything like that, but he lays it out clearly and provides good data as well as anecdotes to support his points.

One thing I found pertinent for me was his emphasis on the need for parents to be what he calls the three P's: patient, present, and persistent. These things can be hard for me. It's easy to put a kid in front of the tv or computer or videogame device and then just go do my own thing. Much harder to be present with them while they watch/play. It's also hard to be patient and persistent with talking to kids about stuff like tv, games, bullying. I imagine this only gets worse as kids grow toward the sullen teen years.

Another interesting point to me was about how kids prefer to learn and how videogames in particular are tailored to that, in ways that school isn't. He writes that kids need learning tasks to be hard, but not too hard, and to increase in difficulty over time, building on skills already learned, and to provide rewards/incentives for accomplishment (points, levels). This definitely describes almost every game that my 9-year-old likes to play (e.g. Angry Birds) -- they start off simple and slowly get more complicated as you gain skill and level up. I found this insight really useful and it has helped me adjust how I respond to my son's constant requests for more "screen time."

I don't think that any at least moderately aware parent is going to find anything earthshattering in here, but I found it a valuable read overall. ( )

I received this book as a LibraryThing Early Review. I enjoyed the book, and it's five principles are straightforward. The author uses many statistics and graphs to make his points.

There was an adage growing up about people having a bunch of children, that they "needed to get cable." perhaps this is somewhat parallel to what the author is speaking about when correlating our children's media input and the falling statistics of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Our kids got cable. ( )

As the parent of 4 kids (and raised 2 others), I am an avid reader of parenting books seeking tips and ideas for being a good parent. The book has a lot of psychological reporting and survey information for those who value research focused information over anecdotal advice. However, data must be interpreted properly to yield good advice. The basic premise: kids are good and parents need to parent is sound but not new. The research data provides great insight into the habits of young people that often contrasts with media sensationalized stories and TV/movie dramas. There are probably more positive trends among young people than we realize though we must be diligent to direct children towards good decision making. The author expounds simple truths that seem grounded with research and common sense but it mainly reinforced what I've read in other parenting books. If you want to see the latest research on young people's behaviors and related parenting principles, it is a good resource. ( )

Overall I thought Mr Snyder does a good job on driving home his principals. He provides data to put to rest many of the fears that parents today have about the technology world kids live in. He uses the same argument as the NRA - TV doesn't make children obese, parents do (a.k.a. guns don't kill people, people do). But things like obesity is up, face-to-face social skills are down as children lock up in the technology. He does make strong statement on controlling these, but also goes out of the way to excuse them. Although I see his point, in today's world of both parents working to keep the roof over their heads, he seems to provide advice for the old idyllic world of every home with a stay at home parent to watch over the kiddies.

Still there is lots of good advice that I hope to use. One unintentional laughable part of the book is his suggestion on providing your children applications to request permission for watching TV programs. And then having a sit down review immediately after the program to go over character development, etc. I wonder if Mr Snyder's home is run like a corporation or a home? :) ( )

This book was pretty basic. Roughly 125 pages, so nothing new. Aimed at parents of "tweens/teens". If you are a parent of a child in either of these categories and you find this book enlightening I'm not sure where you've been.... Having said that the chapters on TV and social networks were ok. I found the author a bit pompous and at least one comment (directed at teachers) was downright offensive. Overall I don't recommend spending money on this book.

I don't agree with everything in this book, but I did find some helpful ideas and suggestions. The sections on tv and video games were particularly interesting to me, and it was an easy read. I don't think it's one I'll recommend to my friends as being a go-to parenting book, but I certainly wouldn't recommend against it either. ( )

An easy read filled with extremely useful information in this ever changing world. As a mother of a toddler and an elementary school teacher, I still found the content to be helpful, even though I don't have a tween or teen yet. The information was helpful to read now so that I am better prepared as a teacher and so I am more informed when my daughter is a tween and teen. ( )

It's a simple book. The first part deals with what research says about children and topics like sex, bullying, culture, etc...The author argues against the common assessment that children are worse now than back in parents time. It's not so convincing but he is very reasonable. The last half of the book deals with the issues children face: sex, texting, video games, tv and bullying. He gives commom sense tips. A few things that are common sense that need mentioning are: children need adults! But he also says parents need to be adults. He argues that parents want to be kids friends and thus kids end up being like the adults.

Not a bad book! Easy reading. ( )

The 5 Simple Truths of Raising Kids embraces the following assumptions: Kids are Kids, Kids are Good, Kids need parents, Kids need adults, and Kids need communities. This parenting manual is not rocket science, it does not bring to light some amazing, never-before-seen techniques, it basically attempts to draw parents back to the basics. R. Bradley Snyder identifies several modern-day issues that 21st century adolescents are faced with, and points out the error in fearing these issues. Society is not being shaped by the evils of television, texting, social media, and video games. However, if these electronic devices replace parenting and community, they can have negative effects. It all boils down to embracing the truth that kids are still kids, they are basically good, and they need parents, adults, and community in their lives. ( )

I found this book to be an interesting read. The author is repetitive, but not in a bad way. He takes the simple truths and continually applies them to different situations. It is almost as if he is drilling the concept into your mind so that it sticks and so that you can apply it to your own situation. I think he explained the concepts well and backed up his ideas with solid research.

My wife and I found this book very helpful. We have a tween and a teen and this book helped us look at our relationship in a new way. We used it along with our children to open a dialog with them about things we had not thought of asking. We highly recommend this book to all who have children or a planning on having children. ( )