Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Book: Parenting on Your Knees

Today’s Book Review is brought to you by Cross Focused Media. They provided the book reviewed in exchange for this review.

Want to know more about the author? Click here for an interview or go to her website at http://www.vickitiede.com

Look! A Christian Parenting Book! Quick, everyone turn to Proverbs 22:6! Here we go….

Wait, Vicki Tiede’s new book Parenting on Your Knees (Pix-n-Pens, 2013) does not come close to using the oft-misapplied Proverb about child-rearing. (I recommend the appendix in God’s Wisdom in Proverbs on this verse. I recommend the whole book, too.) Instead, she has looked throughout Scripture to find other verses that relate to parenting, most of which are not quite so overly clichéd.

Parenting Preschool FRONT Cover

Now, let’s take a quick look through Parenting on Your Knees. The subtitle is Prayers and Practical Guidance for the Preschool Years. You’re looking at 160 pages of content in softcover binding and an additional 1o pages of recommended resources for both you and your children. After all, children’s books help kids more than grown-up books do.

This book, though, is not for kids. It is for grown-ups. Parenting on Your Knees is more mom-oriented than dad-oriented, though this is likely because the author is a mom. She certainly does not downplay the importance of dad-she writes what she knows, she writes out of her experience as a mom.

One thing that she has certainly experienced is that moms of preschoolers do not have hours of free time to read long book chapters. Each of the chapters here is short and on-point. That is a strength: Mom can snag a quick chapter when she has 3 to 7 minutes through her day. Which may happen once, hopefully.

The illustrations for each chapter are not made-up nor are they based in popular culture. Instead, they are from the real life of the author or those who shared their stories with her. This makes Parenting on Your Knees a book that connects: I can see having to tackle a child who is headed full-speed toward the parking lot. In fact, I think I can remember doing so. These real-life situations support the overall practical application of the book.

If I had to find a fault with Parenting on Your Knees it would be this: from the title, I expected more focus on the prayer aspect of parenting. The subtitle makes clearer that one will find both practical and prayer guidance between the covers, and both are certainly there, but the title might suggest this as a prayer book with a little practicality in it. Instead, it is a practical book with prayer suggestions to go along with each practical principle.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I just see a minor mismatch between content and title, but that does not devalue the content. I would suggest this as a great addition to the Christian parent’s toolbox. Put it on your “standard baby shower” gift list alongside link-a-doos and cabinet latches and get it in the hands of expectant families. Those that take the time to read it will be thankful you did.

Note: Parenting on Your Knees was provided by Cross Focused Media in exchange for this review.

1 comment:

  1. Doug,

    Thanks for being part of the Parenting on your Knees blog tour. I appreciate that you highlighted practical nature of Vicki's book.

    Shaun Tabatt
    Cross Focused Reviews

    ReplyDelete

To deal with SPAM comments, all comments are moderated. I'm typically willing to post contrary views...but I also only check the list once a day, so if you posted within the last 24 hours, I may not be to it yet.

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