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Breaking Through

How to Rescue Childhood and Heal the Parent–Child Relationship
By Mary Willow
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Brief Description
Newsflash! Building healthy, respectful relationships with our children means grasping a single critical factor that is hiding in plain sight: it is not the child's flowering intellect that is at the forefront of brain development. In fact, it is the child's ancient survival brain that wants... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4500
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So many parents all over the world areΒ feeling lost and increasingly desperate.Β Despite their best efforts, their kids becomeΒ resistant, belligerent and unreachable.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Newsflash! Building healthy, respectful relationships with our children means grasping a single critical factor that is hiding in plain sight: it is not the child's flowering intellect that is at the forefront of brain development. In fact, it is the child's ancient survival brain that wants to run the show. And that character cannot be reasoned with!

The key is to see that there is not one child to parent, but two: the True Child, and the child's defence system, the Guard Dog. Each has a contrasting set of behaviours, and each requires a radically different parental response.

There has long been a cry for a more humanistic model of parenting that allows a child to be a child. This might sound obvious and easy, but if a child is enslaved to their defence system, with its myriad reactive behaviours, they will never be free to be a child, no matter what approach is applied.

Parent educator and mentor Mary Willow has created a breakthrough method that has helped hundreds. She has now turned her work into an easy-to-follow book for parents, teachers, and caregivers everywhere who are struggling to reconnect with their kids.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781776891726

Publisher: David Bateman Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 June 2026

Country: New Zealand

Imprint: David Bateman Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 188

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Gifts $20-$50 Health & Wellness In Stock Books Mary Willow New Zealand and Australia Published New Zealand Published Non-Fiction Parenting & Family Self-Help & Personal Development

About the Author

MARY WILLOW has practiced as a registered nurse, certified midwife and early childhood teacher in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada for over 35 years, where she came into contact with struggling parents. In 2007 Mary founded Plum Parenting, a service that provides one-on-one education and mentoring to help parents with parenting as well as group parenting courses.

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