RAISING EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY KIDS:
Help for Parents
By Eliza Huie
10 Publishing. 94 pages. £2.99
ISBN 978 1 914 966 132
Raising Emotionally Healthy Kids is part of the ‘Raising Kids’ series of books which address challenges faced by parents as they bring up their children, and offer wisdom and help.
This book is structured around six tips to help your children navigate the emotional struggles that they face. These include helping them as whole people; understanding the emotional development stage they are at; building a lasting hope in their lives; and knowing when to get further help.
The longest chapter details children’s emotions at different ages: for a short book, considerable space is given to this and although useful to comprehend, it would have been useful for more detail on how the gospel impacts and can be applied, and how parents can connect with their children at these different stages. Whilst this will naturally vary depending upon the individual, their situation and their own particular stage in development, it was disappointing that the book did not flesh out more how raising emotionally healthy kids looks different for us as Christians. As parents seeking to raise our children in an increasingly secular society, our desire is to bring them up to be different from the world around them: not just emotionally healthy but allowing the Bible to impact on their emotional development.
Whilst the book is rooted in an understanding of the gospel and how this impacts on our whole being, the Bible was little referred to through the book: psychologists were quoted far more than the Bible. Much of the book could be read as a secular book on children’s emotions and the gospel’s impact can, at times, feel like a footnote to the sections rather than the central concern.
For those whose children are facing particular emotional challenges, the book has some small nuggets of advice to offer – but it would need considerable thought to know what putting this into practice as a believer would look like.
