Solving the Parenting Puzzle

Left brain, right brain: how often we label people this way! What does it really mean? What else affects how we think and communicate? What else determines whether people get along or struggle with conflict?

In the newly introduced Preview Edition of Solving the Parenting Puzzle: Four Thinking Styles to Unlock the Secret of Family Harmony, parent educator and counselor Susie Leonard Weller gives us a fascinating look at research that has identified four thinking styles in addition to left- and right-brained. When we recognize our dominant brain style, we understand why we’re in sync with some people—and always at odds with others.

The Logical, Practical, Creative and Relational thinking styles are innate preferences for gathering and processing information in certain ways. None of them are not right or wrong, good or bad. Each person typically uses one or two styles most of the time because they are intellectually and emotionally easier and more comfortable, just as it’s physically easier for us to use one hand more than the other.

With quizzes, examples and scenarios, Weller shows us how we can have happier, more productive relationships when we understand how to communicate with people of all thinking styles. She also explains how practicing other thinking styles can improve our ability to handle tasks at home, school and work.

Advance Praise for Solving the Parenting Puzzle

• “Fascinating! It’s a book I wish I’d had 30 years ago!”

• “For parents of young children and for adults who are re-evaluating their lives.”

• “One of the best parenting books I’ve read.”

• “Provides an excellent alternative to traditional parenting techniques.”

• “Love the fact that it acknowledges that all children are intelligent but that they learn in different ways.”

Not yet available in bookstores, the 144-page Solving the Parenting Puzzle can be ordered from Parenting Press by telephoning (800) 992-6657 or (206) 364-2900 or by using the Shopping Cart. The cost is $14.95 plus shipping and, for Washington state residents, state sales tax.

Susie Leonard Weller teaches in the Spokane, Wash. community college district and at North Idaho College and provides life and spiritual counseling through Tools for Transformations. A graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, she later earned a master’s degree in pastoral ministry at Seattle University. She and her husband are the parents of two.