Who Are You & What Have You Done with My Kid?: Connect with Your Tween While They Are Still Listening by Amanda Craig, PHD, LMFT

In Who Are You & What Have You Done with My Kid, Amanda Craig explored tools we can use to navigate the many changes that are ahead of us in raising tweens. Tweens are aged 9 to 12 years old. They love social media, TikTok, creating videos, and connecting with the world. She revealed ways in which we can learn to handle the many changes that they are being faced with in this generation. Amanda is a family therapist with over 25 years of experience. In the book, she briefly mentioned that her sister, Valantina was murdered when she was just 18 years old. She admitted to struggling with what they could have done differently to prevent this tragedy. This is part of the reason as to why she chose to study family psychology. 

 

 

 

In the book, she explained emotional connection and how critical it is to have that connection with our tween. This included that they will follow the rules, feels a part of the family, makes up after an augment, more apt to resist peer pressure, and much more. When we work on actively building this relationship, we will witness a dramatic change in them and they will act more like an adult which is our main goal. She looked at how our tween need to know that we see them, want to know them, we are there for them, and that we will keep them safe. She also went into great detail about autonomic nervous system and the background of what occur from a scientific standpoint. She explored the neuroscience and how our tweens are changing into adults. She also described how we can enforce boundaries. 

 

 

I would recommend this life changing book on parenting tweens to anyone who is either in that current season of their life or will be soon. I liked how up to date the information was in the book and how she made it relevant. One of my favorite things was the topic of enforcing boundaries and she enclosed some examples. One of these was letting parents view videos before they are allowed to post to social media. I also liked how she explained the different between punishment and consequences. I believe this was really helpful in reinforcing our value system and providing an opportunity for our tweens to learn from their mistakes and to change. I also enjoyed how she used a lot of table format to get her message across on variety of topics. I think it made it easier to read and understand. I also liked to two-jar jam teaching that she will explain to readers and this has benefited a number of parents. 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Hachette Book Group/Faithwords for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Are-What-Have-Done/dp/1546003088