Just Because It's Not Wrong Doesn't Make It Right: From Toddlers to Teens, Teaching Kids to Think and Act Ethically

Michael Ungar is an associate professor at the School of Social Work,
Dalhousie University. He is the author of Nurturing Hidden Resilience in
Troubled Youth.

For an author who tells us at the start of each book how much she hates
writing, Coloroso has nonetheless become a prolific advocate for a
balanced “backbone” approach to parenting that emphasizes
responsibility, good judgment, trust, and social justice in
parent–child relationships. She writes: “When children know that
they are cared for, then they can begin caring deeply, sharing
generously, and helping willingly.” It is this simple formula of
empathy and sympathy that propels her narrative. This is Coloroso’s
antidote to hating, hoarding, and harming. Clever with words, she helps
parents help their children consider the intent of their actions, then
consider the content, circumstance, and consequence of what they do. All
this combined is targeted toward raising morally competent children who
are conscious of their role in making their local and global communities
better places to live.

Like her other works, Just Because It’s Not Wrong Doesn’t Make It
Right is well researched and offers catchy, easy-to-remember concepts
that make parenting simpler during times of crisis. At times her prose
drifts toward the academic, but she quickly returns to her vintage style
of the contemporary muse, telling stories to make her point. She also
refers to some of the ideas in her earlier works, such as her model of
three families (brickwall, jellyfish, and backbone). This new work makes
for an interesting and timely read.