Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this book, thinking it would probably be a nice adjunct to what I already share with my daughter, and I thought I might learn a few things from it. The beginning was straight-forward enough, with stories and anecdotes from the author's interactions with her adolescent patients and from her own experiences growing up. The part about kids learning too quickly about sex and being exposed too soon to topics better discussed when they are bit older I agreed with, except for the fact that I advocate the learning of "health" and sex ed in school. The first flag raised that I consciously noticed was the author's discussion about how self-satisfaction with another present could lead to the transmission of herpes. Really? I thought, "OK, not true, but let's go with the flow." The next flag was the mindlessly dropped phrase referring to our toxic culture. Now I thought "Wait a minute!" Labeling the available cultural experiences available today as "toxic" is wrong. Even those aspects of American culture that are seedy can be, for the most part, blocked out through diligent parental intervention. The book began to resemble an encomium, one supposes, to the author's father. The final straw was further back in the book where the author states kids need to believe in God. I believe I might have a glass of wine, but no one will convince me that suspending my critical thinking to defer to a supernatural concept is healthy. I do strongly agree in the value of humility, and perhaps, that is what the author meant, in a way. But she didn't speak of humility, she spoke of deference to authority rather than engagement in discussion. I do not equate engagement in discussion (a healthy thing) as being the same as "negotiating" or needing to provide a reason for *everything* parents ask their children to do (an unnecessary thing). At that point, I returned the book. In the author's defense, she does love her dad and the way she was raised, but this book is woven into too much of a conservative tapestry for me. I suggest that anyone looking to read about developing character in our children and providing healthy examples for them to follow (if they choose to, and we all hope our children will follow our best examples and not our stumbles) would be better served to read: The We Generation (Michael Ungar) http://www.amazon.com/We-Generation-Raising-Socially-Responsible/dp/0738213780/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285019458&sr=8-1 Reviving Ophelia (Mary Pipher) http://www.amazon.com/Reviving-Ophelia-Saving-Selves-Adolescent/dp/1594481881/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285019489&sr=8-1 (To a slightly lesser extent) Parenting Beyond Belief (Dan McGowan) http://www.amazon.com/Parenting-Beyond-Belief-Raising-Religion/dp/0814474268/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285019516&sr=8-1