Review: No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another great book on parenting by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne after their "Whole-Brain Child".

Every chapter is full of useful advice - and well-structured too. The illustrations in the form of comic strips (the way we reactively discipline our kids vs the way we would actually like to discipline them) are very helpful.

Connect first.
Connect with the kids emotionally.
Make sure you are sufficiently calm before reacting.
Try to understand why they behaved they way they did.
Use physical touch.
Use "below eye level" technique.
Don't dismiss the child's emotions feelings ("You are just tired"), validate their feelings and embrace their emotions.

Then redirect.
Make sure the time is right - teaching a lesson when emotions are high is rarely a good idea.
Make it with child's development stage, needs and respect for the child's integrity.
Talk less, listen more.
Describe, don't preach.
Instead of no, use yes with a condition (“Yes, we’ll read another story, but we need to do it tomorrow”).
Involve your child in the discipline.
Emphasize the positive (“I love it when you’re encouraging your sister like that”.)

One of the concluding chapters - The Messages of Hope - is a great and encouraging ending to the book.

"Sometimes there’s just nothing we can do to “fix” things when our kids are having a hard time."

"The not-so-great parenting moments are not necessarily such bad things for our kids to have to go through - because our messy, human, parental responses give kids opportunities to deal with difficult situations and therefore develop new skills."

"When having messed up, they key is to repair any breach in the relationship as quickly as possible. Ruptures without repair leave both parent and child feeling disconnected."

Recommending to any parent. I often think that my kids are my best teachers right now. This book has helped me to become a better student.