The second half of this book had some good ideas to direct your parenting style in a direction that will lead to children to be more attentive to the needs of the world around them. But if you turned to this book looking for a how-to on avoiding the pitfalls of the spoiled child, you will find surprisingly few pages devoted to this.

For some people, I'm sure this is not a good thing. From the start, most of the book seems to be about the sociological proof that many children are spoiled. This felt to me like proving spending pages of scientific data, surveys, and anecdotal proof (through interviews) that winter in Chicago can be cold. Kindlon is thorough in his proof, but the results are hardly surprising.

I liked the suggestion of remembering the best points of our own parents' parenting and then using those ideas as a model for one's own parenting. And while the second part of the book, which focuses on the specific problems of spoiled kids (and their parents), uses the metaphor of the "seven deadly sins," the gimmick feels strained at times.

I'm coming off sounding pretty negative here, but there was a lot of good in this book. I would say that it's a must-read for parents who think putting a television in their children's bedrooms is a good idea. But if you were already aware of the dangers of such behavior, you may find little in this book that is eye-opening. ( )

Read right after The Over-Scheduled Child and the two together make an interesting read I think. Again, another book I think a lot parents today need to read. ( )