Two Things Are True

How to raise happy, calm and confident children.

What if we've been doing it wrong? What if all the parenting techniques we learned to address bad behaviour are counter-productive to our long-term relationship with our children and their resilience? In Two Things Are True, Dr Becky illuminates that two things can be true: parents can feel more connected to their children and their children can become more resilient and confident in the process.

Most parents can relate to the feeling of embarrassment or even shame when we experience unwanted or out-of-control behaviour from our children, often wondering what is wrong with our child. In response to that feeling, we often seek to control through elaborate reward systems, consequences and time-outs and other 'fixes'. For the short-term these methods may work, aiming for compliance. But inevitably, when attention-seeking behaviour comes roaring back through tantrums, shouting or refusing to listen, the ever-present feeling of shame rises to the surface again: as parents we are triggered, and feel we worry we are not good parents. Very often, it leaves us feeling inadequate and our children believing they are bad kids, facilitating even worse behaviour.

Through her private practice, Instagram and workshops, Dr Becky Kennedy has challenged and rebuilt the contemporary parenting model to do two things: rewire parents and children and build closer parent-child relationships. Dr Becky Kennedy offers an alternative to the status quo parenting advice in Two Things Are True, as she teaches parents how to create a more peaceful and enjoyable family system and home life through compassionate, connected parenting. In this book, she shows parents how to help children gain the confidence to work through tough feelings and situations without feeling shame, building our child's resilience and empathy for long-term emotional health through childhood and adulthood.

She debunks the behaviour-first, compliance-as-the-goal model, pointing out its concepts are basically the same as those behind training animals. This old way does nothing for children who need to feel supported and connected as they learn to work through difficult feelings and situations. She reminds us, we are raising humans, not animals.