In the Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune, Heidi Stevens profiled a new parenting book, The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting. Brett Berk, the author of the book, has a master’s degree in education along with 20 years of experience working with young children, which includes his stint as a preschool director in New York City. Not having kids himself, Berk believes that being able to offer an external perspective – much like a therapist does – can be very helpful, especially when dealing with family matters.

According to Steven’s, some of Berk’s best advice is as follows:

• When parents start statements with No and Don’t, it gives kids a prompt for rebellion. Instead, parents should use positive directions. So, “Don’t feed your French fries to the puppy!” becomes “The French fries are only for you to eat.”
• Parents need to be the grown-up, not the best pal. Parents need to guide and direct their kids and not give them an equal say in everything like asking them if they want to take a nap or if they feel like doing their homework.

Stevens insists that she has followed lots of the advice found in the book and that her house is a happier place because of it. Berk uses his wit and wisdom, as well as plenty of anecdotes from friends and family throughout the book, while making it clear that as parents, it ain’t always easy to do the right thing.

Berk says he wrote the book out of love … and apparently to convince parents to stop succumbing to the big-money baby business that makes them do things like buy wipe warmers and Diaper Genies. Finally, someone else said it out loud.