Foreword

FOREWORD by Jennifer Rees Larcombe
I wish Susan had written this book forty years ago when I was just beginning the long challenge of bringing up my own six children! As I read her fascinating book I kept on thinking, 'Oh, I wish I’d thought of trying that', or 'What a brilliant way of handling that kind of situation!' Now, even though I have joined the ranks of what Susan describes as 'retired parents', it is not too late to try out many of her excellent suggestions on the grandchildren who are frequently left in my care. I have to admit that I am sorely tempted to suggest some of Susan’s ideas to my family, but of course a mother/mother-in-law is the very last person on earth to offer advice, so I will have to content myself with giving her book to them all for Christmas!

Susan rightly describes herself as 'an ideas machine'; she is positively bursting with them, but what I love about this book is the way she offers them to the rest of us with total clarity and without a single wasted word. She feeds us with enormous and complicated concepts but in small bite-sized pieces that are easy to digest. I remember only too well, the 'brain-dead' feeling you get when living with a sleepless baby, tempestuous toddler or high energy four-year-old; reading an involved or rambling book is just the last thing you can face. So Susan has divided her wisdom into small, fast moving paragraphs that can be gulped down in haste with a cup of tea, while waiting for the microwave to ping or even while visiting the loo! After all, those are usually the only free moments busy parents ever get!

Most good book shops have a whole shelf of material on how to bring up children, but this book has something deeper to offer - it gives us the spiritual dimension. If our Christian faith matters to us at all, then we long to know how to hand it on to our children as our inheritance to them. Susan tells us how to convey abstract faith issues to children in a way they will easily understand. She deals with subjects such as explaining to our children what a Christian really is, what to say when someone close to them dies, how to tackle the pressure from secular Sunday activities; and even gives sensible guidelines on computer rules for parents - as well as young people!

The vast majority of people who come to see me in my capacity as a counsellor have problems, attitudes and wrong thinking patterns which have their roots in their parents' mistakes. Even the most loving of fathers and mothers fail their children in some area of their upbringing simply out of ignorance, not lack of love or cruelty. We go with our puppies to training classes but, when we embark on the far more important job of bringing up a baby, few of us take the time to read up on the subject. I hope that Susan’s book will become the kind of classic that is given as a gift to each new baby born into a church family. It will give the child a wonderful start in life, and will produce a far more lasting effect than a toy or size one outfit!

Through writing this book Susan is telling us that parenting is one of the most important jobs we will ever do for God, so doing it really well matters immensely. So if you are a parent it is a MUST for you; and if you are a grandparent, godparent, aunt, uncle or friend - buy it and give it as often as you possibly can. I’m going to! Thank you Susan for such a beautifully written and highly stimulating book, you have added something special to our Christian heritage.