Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, Children are from Heaven: How to Have Strong, Confident Children

"Most parenting books focus on problem behaviour but I just wanted a little more cooperation from my daughter and thought this book sounded helpful. In fact I have found it the most positive and useful book on the subject which I turn to time and again for a reminder of and support for what I am trying to achieve. Whenever I feel I have a child behaviour problem, this book reminds me that my approach will make all the difference. And it does. Although people familiar with transactional analysis and assertion will recognise some of the strategies, it is put across in an original and applicable way. I have even adapted some of the ideas into a managers training course! If you want more cooperation and less yelling in your family, this is the book for you."
~ Written on 2006-03-24

"You may have read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, like me but still wondered if John Gray was going to have anything really enlightening to say about raising children. Don't concern yourself about that as he has plently to say and, in my opinion all of it really eye opening.

I have read lots of books on raising children trying to find ways to make my life easier and searching for ways where we can all live happily together. This book really does give you so much useful information. I found the chapter on the different tempraments of children particularly fascinating and just understand my five year old so much better now...it is just amazing the difference when I communicate with him.

After reading this book and putting the recommendations into practice I would honestly say I am so much happier as a mother and can see the change in the kids...do not hesitate to buy this book it is worth every penny."
~ Written on 2004-10-10

"Feeling rather frazzled with a "terrible two" year old, I was wondering whether people were right who told me that the "short sharp shock" treatment of smacking children was the only way to "make them do". Although I tried it in bad situations, and it stopped the behaviour, it always felt so fundamentally wrong. Now I'm delighted and relieved to find that there is another way, and it seems such common sense when you read the book. You'll be amazed at the response you get...although there was never any deficit of love between my daughter and I, we are now much more relaxed together and happier too. I've only been doing it for a week...I wish I'd read this a year ago. It's fantastic and every parent should read it. My only challenge now is converting my husband..."
~ Written on 2003-04-16

"The ideas are clearly expressed and work... it is however a shame that there are so many major grammatical mistakes in the text. it makes hard to take message seriously!"
~ Written on 2000-03-25

"If you are even vaguely interested in this book then I highly recommend that get it. I found it to be brilliant. It is full of information which is so clever. It is presented in a simple, easy-to-read style, and although a bit repetitive to emphasise certain points it not difficult to skim through. The information provided is really amazing and the ideas are really straight-forward. He goes through the 5 basic messages a child needs to hear. He talks of other things a child truly needs from parents and why - I hadn't really thought about it before and it really explained everything in a simple way and showed me what matters to a child's upbringing and what isn't necessary. He goes through parenting your child from age 2 to 18 and even mentions the 20's. He talks about tantrums and teenage rebellion and how to understand and even prevent those. He talks about how you talk to your children and the difference between asking them to do things and ordering. Some of the things sound like such subtle changes to the way you talk to and understand your children now. There are all sorts of things that you would never have thought of because you wouldn't have thought they mattered. He calls the approach "Positive Parenting" and explains the difference between this and the "fear-based parenting" and "soft-love" approaches which we all had but which are now out of date. It does make you realise how badly we were all brought up and why we are all so dysfunctional, but to read it now would be a true gift for your children or any that you deal with. Even if you don't buy it at Amazon, please have a look at this book in a book shop."
~ Written on 2000-01-13