VOLUME 1

ISSUE 1

SUMMARIZED BY: MART CRUZ

Why Dont You Grow Up . . . (Dad)?

By Francis Kong and Bryan Kong
June 2013

Reality Check: Parents Make Mistakes

Inside This Summary
1. Reality Check: Parents Make Mistakes 2. The Power of Praise and Affirmation 3. Parents Create Memories and Show
Affection

This chapter talks about how parents and grownups make mistakes but they wont admit it. It also mentions that parenting is a privilege. It is not
a birthright.

Most lessons are illustrated by telling stories as an example. Stories on how do our children reflect the way we speak, act, and behave. They also tend to mirror their parents habits. Some mistakes of parents mentioned in this chapter are pushing children too hard into things that they might not really like, e.g. sports, academics, courses, etc. The chapter ends with an inspirational story of a remorseful father who talked to his son while the son lies asleep.

4. Parents Support Their Childrens

Dreams

5. Parents Discipline Kids with Love and Care 6. Parents Accept and Adjust to Kids Stages of Change 7. Parents Teach Their Kids to Love God 8. Inspirationals Stories that Teach and Inspire

The Power of Praise and Affirmation

This talks about how parents need to give constant affirmation of the good things children do which merit immediate appreciation and praise. An excellent list of cause and effect of parents behaviors toward their children are shown and emphasized. The advertising approach to communicating with kids can be an effective tool in reminding them of important life principles. This was illustrated in this chapter and Francis asked the readers to try it because it works.

Parenting is a privilege, it is not a birthright.

Bryan says that a big pat on the shoulder really helps, especially from someone you look up to. For the inspirational moments which concludes this chapter, a poem on how to praise and affirm children no matter what, can make parents realize and ponder on the way they treat their own children.

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BOOK SUMMARY

Parents Create Memories & Show Affection

The chapter started by heeding parents to build positive memories. Always want to create intimate togetherness with your children. Establish rituals to aid in the formation of those memories and through them all, you can shower your affection to your children. A poem entitled A Wish for Closeness can make any father cry upon

Create memories, build rituals, and show affection.

reading it in the middle of this chapter. It tells of wasted years the father has been away from his son. The power of hugs and kisses of parents to their kids was also emphasized and gave importance in this chapter. Bryan says that a very important lesson he got in his life was when his father brought him along to his business trip abroad. This special bonding of father and son enabled Bryan to build his own character and discipline because he got to observed his father, Francis, walk his talk.

Parents Support their Childrens Dreams

This Chapter stresses the important role of parents in supporting childrens dreams. The parents need to help their kids achieve their dreams. Encouragement on sharpening kids skills and talents is vital. Parents need to develop their childrens interest in life. To learn and see whats the dreams of your kids; ask this most popular question What would you like to be when you grow up? Expose children to a lot of things in life and help them discover by themselves what they would like to do in their adult life. As much as parents need to support their kids dreams, this chapter warns parents to be careful on setting unrealistic expectations on their children.

Parents Discipline Kids With Love & Care

Francis began this chapter with presenting the reader the 12 steps guaranteed to train children to be delinquent.
This is a not-too-serious book that should be taken seriously.

The importance of training kids is tackled here. As the Bible says in Proverbs 22:6, train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Examples and stories were shared by Francis here to drive his point. In the story on inspirational moments, lack of discipline resulted in the tragic accident of a 6 year old daughter. We can all learn in this story the power of disciplining our kids at an early age. Bryan says that in their household, his father taught them at a very young age to expect that everything they do, good or bad, could never escpae the law of cause and effect.

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PAGE 3

Parents Accept & Adjust to Kids Stages of Change

Inevitable change is inherent in our kids biologically, chronologically as well as emotionally. This is the main topic on this chapter. Francis says that if we want to have our kids act like grownups, we need to treat them as grownups too. As our kids change, we ought to accept that we, as parents have to change as well. When they ask questions in their teen years, we would not reply as if they are still in pre-school which is very common. At this point, we cannot say youre just too young to know and understand because at this teen age they desired desperately to understand. This is the reason why we have to work harder to adjust to them. Bryan tells his story of having been scolded, trained and taught by their fathers as they grow older. The most memorable thing for him was the way his father balanced disciplining with legitimate fun needs adjustments. These are the things we can adopt as we face our changing teens.
Teenage years are the awkward age when a child is too old to say something cute and too young to say something sensible.

Parents Teach Their Kids to Love God

Love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. This penultimate chapter emphasizes our important role as parents to impart and lead our children to the reality of God who loves them. It is our duty to train them to love God and to offer their lives to serving the Lord. God is serious in the way we raise up our kids, and, being the Author of Life, His prescribed way is to expose our children to the Word of God. Thus, it is of most importance to bring our kids to Sunday school, buy them Christian books and bring them to church every week. Bringing our kids to Sunday school and to church every week will not make them Christians. They need to see our walk in Christ. They need to see that we take our faith seriously. They need to catch us on our knees in prayer. They need to witness us studying the Gods Word and applying it in our daily life the lessons we learned. example. The most effective teaching is by

The school will teach children how to read, but the environment of the home must teach them what to read. The school can teach them how to think, but the home must teach them what to believe. Charles A. Wells

Inspirationals Stories that Teach and Inspire

This bonus chapter includes inspiring stories. These are stories that stand the test of time. It is in the hope of illustrating how parenting and family serve as inspirations and examples that just might teach a lesson or two in helping us raise our family.