Imperfect Parenting: How to Build a Relationship With Your Child to Weather any Storm

As parents, we often worry we’re making the wrong decisions. The good news is, having a strong relationship with your child means you can make a parenting blunder from time to time, and exercise grace and patience to try again.

Written for parents of children from birth to young adulthood (ages 0-24), this book helps you examine your role as a guide, cheerleader, advocate, and most importantly, as a human being who doesn’t always have the right answers. While your child’s brain, body, emotions, and social abilities develop over time, author Dona Matthews shows how your skills as a parent can be developed too, by practicing relationship fundamentals such as acceptance, positivity, social support, boundaries, respect, self-care, and gratitude.

Rooted in the latest findings from neuroscience and psychology, this book presents a model of authoritative parenting that embraces imperfection. Each chapter focuses on a key relationship skill for parenting, with tips on how to practice it during different stages of your child’s growth and in common stressful situations such as social, school, health, and family scenarios.