Hear Me, Hug Me, Trust Me: Parenting Today's Teenager Effectively

Jane Heath is a psychology instructor at Ryerson Polytechnical
University.

Information collected from junior high-school students over a four-year
period and the author’s experiences as a practising psychologist and
high-school counselor have been combined to create a parenting manual
that is well organized and eminently practical.

Wooding lists and describes the 12 central characteristics of the
“ideal parent.” Numerous quotations from the adolescents whose
opinions were solicited illustrate and enliven the descriptions, as do
the many vignettes and case histories drawn from the author’s
experience. The substance of the text agrees with the more respected
self-help manuals on parental interaction with children, and with
academic research in the area, particularly Baumrind’s work on the
dimensions of warmth and control in authoritative parenting. Wooding
offers sensible advice for dealing with serious problems, along with
guidelines as to when (and how) to look for outside help.

Hear Me, Hug Me, Trust Me is a valuable addition to the genre of
parenting manuals. Teachers, parents, counselors, and all who interact
with adolescents will find the author’s descriptions of parenting
attitudes and techniques clear, thoughtful, and entertaining.