Bloom: 50 Things by Lynne Kenney and Wendy Young

The full title of this book is Bloom: 50 Things to Say, Think, and Do with Anxious, Angry and Over-the-Top Kids and anyone who knows DD1 knows this is a perfect description of her!  She is lovable and intelligent, but when her anxiety is high or she becomes frustrated, that is when we see the other side of her.

The description says:

Written for real parents with anxious, angry and over-the-top kids, Bloom is a brain-based approach to parenting all children. Stop second-guessing the way you handle misbehaviors, and learn why they occur in the first place. Come to understand the developmental origins of behaviors and take a fresh look at how you can address them with skill-building techniques that produce real and lasting change.

Taking its lead from neuroscience and best practices in early childhood mental health, Bloom offers parents, teachers and care providers the words, thoughts and actions to raise calm, confident children, while reducing the need for consequences and punishment.

The first book of its kind, Bloom provides pages full of printable mantras you can carry with you, hang on your fridge or use in your classroom to raise emotionally competent kids. Bloom allows you to take a collaborative stance with your children, improving their cognitive, emotional and social skills. Bloom offers a new approach to human relationships that will change the way you perceive, think and feel about parenting, love, work and life. Bloom changes everything. If it works wonders with anxious, angry and over-the-top kids, imagine what it can do for your child.

BONUS: Each chapter has a QR code that links to bonus videos so you can hear directly from the authors about each topic.

The book is split into 11 chapters on a variety of subjects from Biting to Grief.  Within each chapter, there are also examples of What to Say,  What to Think, What to Do when you encounter each behaviour, with the aim that your own reaction doesn't exasperate the situation - something I admit I need help with as DD1 is a helluva lot teeny weeny little bit like me...

I thought this was a good book, and would be really useful for some children and parents.

The downside, for me, is that it concentrates on young children, up to age 10.  Now ideally, all this issues would be sorted by then, but DD1 is older and still gets anxious, angry and over-the-top.  Maybe because she is [undiagnosed] on the autistic spectrum, maybe because I'm a crap parent, maybe because we're too similar and I can't see the wood for the trees as I empathise with how she's feeling whilst also trying to gain the control that my parents had over me when I was that age.  Either way, I didn't find the book as useful as I had hoped, but I wish I had discovered it earlier.

If you have a young child who sounds like the description, I would recommend this book to you.