Reviewed by Alice H. for Readers' Favorite

Loren Buckler has written a "how to" book for parents who need instructions in child rearing. In Parent Wise: The Emotional Challenges of Family Life and How to Deal with Them, she discusses how one cannot really be emotionally prepared for raising children until they are literally on your doorstep; and even then, parents oftentimes have so much emotional baggage left over from childhood that their good parenting intentions tend to go by the wayside in times of family stress. Part of the idea of being able to deal with the emotional issues related to children is to accept the personal emotions such as disappointment, sadness and anger. Once that has been acknowledged and owned, then the parent is better able to figure out which personal feelings might be interfering with the ability to effectively deal with the issues of the child.

The book is organized according to 20 positive intentions of the parent. The author then proceeds to explain how the parent's personal feelings can prevent effective communication with the child. The bottom line is, that if all the intentions are followed and practiced, it will lead to the unconditional love of the child, something all parents have wanted for themselves since childhood.

This is a well-written book which will appeal to those beginning the parenthood role. I was slightly disappointed that there did not appear to be any new, earth-shattering suggestions, but the book is written in a way that most every parent will get something from reading the intentions and how emotional interference can undermine the best of intentions.