Shimi Kang - The Self-Motivated Kid: How to Raise Happy, Healthy Children Who Know What They Want and Go After It (Without Being Told)

Praise for The Self-Motivated Kid

With insight, professional expertise, and unfailing instinct, Dr. Shimi Kang offers us essential guidance in restoring sanity to twenty-first-century parenting. Compassionate to parent and child, loving and reasoned in its approach, [The Self-Motivated Kid] is highly readable, emotionally nurturing and intellectually satisfying.

Gabor Mat, M.D., coauthor, Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers

This is a powerful book that not only reminds us of what it means to live a balanced human life, but also how to achieve itsimply and naturally.

David Suzuki

Ready to give your kids back their childhoodthe part YOU loved? The joy? The creativity? The afternoons you still remember with such longing? If youre driving your kids to the lessons neither of you likes, instead of giving yourselves BOTH a chance to relax, play or just waste time, its time to turn around the car. This book is your U-turn to joy.

Lenore Skenazy, author of the book and founder of the blog Free-Range Kids

Dr. Shimi Kang writes insightfully of the real lives of parents, weaving science with spirit, and embedding highly practical suggestions into every chapter. I highly recommend this book!

Michael Gurian, author of The Wonder of Boys and The Wonder of Girls

A beautifully written guide that will help parents counteract the social forces that have been depriving children ever more of freedom, play, and childhood itself.

Peter Gray, research professor of psychology, Boston College, and author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

If youre looking for effective but practical strategies to calm the chaos in your kids lives, foster their internal motivation, and truly prepare them to function successfully in the adult worldread this book! Using concrete evidence, Dr. Kang shows why Tiger approaches to parenting do more harm than good. Her Dolphin approach will have you and your kids cheering. Highly recommended!

Amy McCready, founder of PositiveParentingSolutions.com and author of If I Have to Tell You One More Time

Combining scientific research with personal stories, Kang has a soothing and encouraging tone that will appeal to many readers. By encouraging parents to model dolphins, who instruct by play, exploration, social bonds, altruism, contribution, and family and community values, kids will strengthen their own internal compass and have a stronger core with a greater chance at personal success and happiness.

Library Journal (starred review)

[The Self-Motivated Kid] should be compulsory reading for every parent and educator. Drawing upon a wealth of recent research and insights from her clinical practice, Dr. Kang provides invaluable advice on how we can avoid the extremes of both tiger parenting and jellyfish parenting in order to ensure that our children grow up to be balanced, responsible, successful, and happy adults. This is a book infused with wisdom from beginning to end. My only regret is that it hadnt been published 20 years ago when I was struggling as a new parent!

Dr. Tom Matthews, headmaster, Saint Georges School

Social networks have raised the bar for human interaction: Authenticity, vulnerability, humility, empathy, familiarity with cutting-edge research, firsthand experience, and the ability to walk one with are all now prerequisites for modern day thought leaders and educators. Dr. Shimi Kang delivers all this and more in her book [The Self-Motivated Kid]. Taking both an intimate look at herself and a broad lens to human hard-wiring, she provides a direly needed paradigm shift for child-rearing in the twenty-first century. We are honored and privileged to recommend [TheSelf-Motivated Kid].

Marlaine Cover, founder, Parenting 2.0

I think this is a fantastic book to revolutionize your parenting approach.

AlongCameKids.com

Dr. Kang gives us a lot to think about. Its a good read, with eye-opening examples and many practical suggestions for incorporating some of this thinking into your own life. [The Self-Motivated Kid] offers a roadmap for finding a little more balance in the way we parent, so that we can help our children become happy, successful, independent, and self-motivated adults.

LifeOverEasy.com

I want you to read [The Self-Motivated Kid]. Unlike trendy books, I believe that its here for the long run. Its not a formula or a recipe or a how-to parent, but rather a roadmap for helping our children achieve a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment. And really, what more do we want as parents?

BeNiceOrLeaveThanks.com

This book really opened my eyes to the idea that balance in parenting is as important as balance in life. Dr. Kang uses evidence-based research to make her points about the importance of being an authoritative parent. I feel like this book has made me understand much better the kind of parent that I want to be and I know that it will very dog-eared from all my referencing as my son grows up.

SavvyMom.ca

I would be shocked if this book did not make almost any parents take a long, hard look at themselves and their schedule and the life they are leading and ask some very hard questions. What I can only hope is that parents will implement the answers.

MBAMamaMusings.ca

If you were to pick just one book on parenting this year, I would recommend [The Self-Motivated Kid].

MotherlessMoments.com

An illuminating read on the challenges of parenting in the twenty-first century, the limits of the tiger model... and the opportunities offered by a parenting style inspired by one of the most wonderfully adaptable, self-reliant, and socially connected creatures on earth: dolphins.

Minas Bookshelf

An excellent read through and through. [The Self-Motivated Kid] is a parenting guide that every home should own. It is essential not only for parents but also for many adults to understand the culture we are being raised in, how it is affecting us, and how we can change our own behaviors for our own personal health and well-being.

Working Mommy Journal

Recovering Tiger Moms, listen upthis is our new manifesto, and its brilliant! Dr. Shimi Kang teaches parents how to nurture the skills most needed to succeed in our complex, modern, hyper-connected world. And it has nothing to do with power-assertive negative parenting. Dr. Kang kicks fear to the curb, honors parental intuition, and uses neuroscience and behavioral research to support her recommendations.

Louise Kuo Habakus, FearlessParent.org and author

The Self-Motivated Kid is a must-read book for any parent committed to raising a child that will want to succeed in life. The skills of communication, critical thinking, and adaptability are key to rising to the top in our personal and professional life. Dr. Kang has given us parents a guidebook to helping our children succeed and become positive contributors to society.

Dr. Portia Jackson, www.workingmotherhood.com

There are talking heads, parenting experts, and preachers. Dr. Shimi Kang, however, is the real dealphysician, psychiatrist, maternal health specialist, and a model of motherhood and healthy partnerships. Her insights on parenting and child development are kitchen-tested recipes. The goal for our children isnt narrow achievementits overcoming lifes challenges with a balance of passion and grace. The Self-Motivated Kid tells us why and how.

David R. Gastfriend, M.D., scientific advisor, Treatment Research Institute, Philadelphia