The Chilled Parent deals with the ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ of parenting – the little voice that speaks to us saying “my baby should be sleeping through the night by now”, “my son should be reading by now”, “my daughter shouldn’t be wearing those clothes at her age", “my son shouldn’t be smoking at 13!”

Written in a down-to-earth way, it is clear that the author has herself lived through and understood what many parents experience.  She recognises that we can’t be perfect parents, and when we stop striving to be so, our family relationships will blossom, and that, while we cannot change the world about us, we can change ourselves and provide a loving, empowering home environment for our children.

Throughout the book she reveals the sources of family conflicts and pressures, how to relax and make time for the family, have close, meaningful parent-child relationships, how to deal with discipline issues, and have the satisfaction of knowing we’re doing everything to nurture our kids’ self-esteem.

The Chilled Parent includes a chapter on health and nutrition with some revealing information about meat, dairy, and a simple, easy-to-use, stress-free guide for the family.

Rita Offen was inspired to write The Chilled Parent when suddenly her nine year old daughter came close to death from Meningitis.  She recognised the significance of family relationships, and how the pressures and expectations of daily life put upon all family members affects those relationships, how lack of time for each other means we don’t appreciate our children as much as we would like to.  Experiencing the near-loss of a loved one induced her to develop a new perspective, which she shares in this book in the hope that, when the day quickly comes upon us when our children have grown up, we know we have done everything to satisfy and enjoy our family life.