Category: Books

Raising Mentally Strong Kids (affiliate link) is one of better parenting books that I read recently. Highly recommended , 5/5.

A lot of parenting books have same concepts but it is good to re-read same ideas with different perspectives from various authors. It helps reinforce those ideas.

The main ideas are:

1. Focus on yourself first. Fix your issues, get good sleep, handle stress, do hard things, be a good example.
2. Physical activity is very important for brain development.
3. Fight Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANT).
4. Give kids chores, give them hard things to do, let them fail when stakes are low.
5. Choose authoritative parenting style. But don’t nag, let kids learn from their mistakes and be there for them when they fail.

Just finished listening to The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi.

The book is in the form of dialogue between philosopher and a youth. It discusses Adlerian philosophy.

The book seems to be written from a Japanese perspective. It talks about “shut-ins”, NEET, and other terms for young people who prefer to isolate themselves. I had never heard of these terms, after some research I learned that it is a huge problem in the Asian countries.

Another interesting thing was that the “youth” in the book had bad relationship with his father and it seemed he was greatly troubled by it. I understood this part as I grew up in a culture where we also treat parents like gods. But I know many people who grew up in the west and they are totally okay with not having a good relationship with their parents.

It felt like a lot of wisdom in the book is common sense, at least, in the western cultural context. So I am a little surprised to see how this book is so popular here. I do want to re-read it, perhaps, I am missing something.

Overall, my rating is 3/5 for now.