The Power of Showing Up: How Parental Presence Shapes Who Our Kids Become and How Their Brains Get Wired Hardcover – January 7, 2020

Wow. A really great perspective and roadmap to help better understand how we parent and how we can do a better job with secure attachment.

Raising kids is hard. This helps.

Based on brain attachment research the book successfully posits that the key to a child’s developmental and functional success is in creating strong attachments by simply showing up.Showing up means providing four key but necessary conditions the children in order for their brains to remain calm and attached to the care giver: Safety so the child can feel confident in taking risks. Seen so there’s an understanding of the emotion. Soothing iso the child can cope with your steady support. Security so the child is assured they she can count on you consistently.This book is invaluable for any parent or professional who works with trauma informed children. Understanding the connection between the brain, emotions and behaviors will help you to better understand and support the child.

Very clear and relatable, a lot to add to ones parenting and understanding ones parenting and relationship with ones children based on upbringing as a child. Very helpful and a lot to think about. Really opens the door for attachment understanding

The book helps you build a mental model for how to emotionally support your kids that can be applied throughout parenting from infant to adolescence. Appreciated the vignettes and tactical actions paired with the theory of secure attachment.

I really like that it’s clean and free of writing and highlights.

I've done a great deal of work to understand my own childhood and to recognize the ways in which I unintentionally wounded our kids, but this book has given me so much more insight, awareness, and hope! It is the first book I have read about attachment theory and all the practical ways we can nurture secure attachment in our children OF ANY AGE. Already it has had a significant impact on our relationships with our adult kids as we work to make sure we are truly showing up for them each and every day.If you have children and/or grandchildren, if you work with children, or if you just want help in making sense of your own childhood (and how it impacts your life today), read this book!

This book was really important for me. I had broken my attachment to my children through not caring for myself and harsh parenting. I didn’t understand what had gone wrong, and it hurt me so deeply. I felt like I was in a cycle of unending disappointment. I learned in this book that my kids were actually showing me their need for me when they got upset and that it was an opportunity to soothe them. I found so much hope because I learned that I could heal my mistakes and my past. I am so grateful to these authors because they gave me the hope and practical tips I needed to remember who I was before the depression set in. It showed me that I also had a chance to heal my children’s future and make a way for my grandchildren to have a better life if my children decide to have them. I’m so grateful. I have learned to show up for myself, to be more self-compassionate and to give myself the safety I need so that I will be able to help my children better.