Secure Daughters, Confident Sons

If you are a parent, you can quickly get overwhelmed with the plethora of parenting books on the market.  Few are anything more than your typical guide in how to have well-behaved, nice, neat little children.  It was refreshing to read Glenn T. Stanton's Secure Daughters, Confident Sons:  How Parents Guide Their Children Into Authentic Masculinity And Femininity.  

Glenn T. Stanton is the director for Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs and a research fellow at the Institute of Marriage and Family in Ottawa. He debates and lectures extensively on the issues of gender, sexuality, marriage and parenting at universities and churches around the country. He served the George W. Bush administration for many years as a consultant on increasing fatherhood involvement in the Head Start program.
Stanton is the author of five books and a contributor to nine others, including Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in Postmodern Society (1997), My Crazy, Imperfect Christian Family (NavPress, 2004) and Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage and Parenting (InterVarsity Press, 2004), which was featured on C-SPAN BookTV.
His latest book, The Ring Makes All the Difference (Moody Publishers, September 2011), explains the latest research findings, as well as biblical wisdom, on why cohabitation is not a smart idea for couples and their children. Stanton and his wife have five endlessly growing and amazing children, and they live in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Stanton's response to some opinions that his definition of gender in the book is too narrow can be found HERE at her.meneutics the Christianity Today blog for women.

"My desire is to help you teach your child to navigate between the two extreme views of gender identity that are present in our culture today.  One group firmly believes that the way you nurture or socialize a child trumps the work of nature; the other demands that no amount of nurture should change the inborn wild-at-heart or captivating nature of boys and girls.  Our definition of gender has to involve both nature and nurture to truly explain the essential difference and how we authentically live in our humanity throughout distinct cultures of the world.  Our natures are real, but so are our nurturing environments.  If not, parenting would simply be about providing food, clothing, and shelter."  (Stanton from the introduction - The Importance of Difference)

The book is divided into two parts:

1. A Clear Vision for Authentic Manhood and Womanhood
2. Why Boys and Girls Need Mothers and Fathers

The two parts cover the following:

1. What makes a good man?
2. What makes a good woman?
3. What a boy needs most.
4. What a girl needs most.
5. Making Healthy Men out of Healthy Boys
6. Making Healthy Women out of Healthy Girls
7. Why it's Good When Mom and Dad Disagree
8. The Serious Business of Play
9. How Moms and Dads Together Influence Language Development
10. Balancing Grace and Discipline
11. Preparation Versus Protection:  Why Both Dad and Mom Are Right
12. Your Child is a Sexual Being
13. How Mom and Dad Raise Kids Who Care
14. Gender Differences:  The Basis for a Healthy Family

Stanton's writing style is engaging and funny.  You'll be blessed and encouraged by his offering in Secure Daughters, Confident Sons.

A copy of the book was sent to me by WaterBrook Multnomah as part of their Blogging For Books program.  You can order the book from them by going HERE.  You can also read an excerpt from the book by going HERE.

If you will, please take a minute and rank this review in the box below.  You will be entered to win a copy of the book for yourself!


Blessings,
Jennifer