“Bold, clear and lifesaving. Vicki Hoefle is in the business of helping parents grow great grown-ups.” That’s the cover quote on Vicki’s new book The Straight Talk on Parenting: A No-Nonsense Approach to How to Grow a Grown-Up.

2015 is turning into the year when all my favorite parenting authors are writing sequels. Vicki’s first book, Duct Tape Parenting, came out the same summer my first book It’s OK Not to Share did. Readers are clamoring for more.

And they should. Vicki understands that the struggles we face every day – morning out-the-door rush, meals, bedtime, backtalk, sibling squabbles, messy rooms and more – are all fundamentally caused by 1) fractured relationships, or 2) a child’s quest for independence that gets thwarted by parents and lack of training, or 3) both.

She’s in it for the long-haul. Behavior struggles that seem to many parents as daily headaches, Vicki sees as chances for developing lifelong character traits, independence and healthy relationship models. Lasting change takes time and means making a switch to intentional parenting. If this sounds daunting, it shouldn’t. Vicki’s method is straight-forward and far easier than a lifetime of parent-child struggles.

The strength of her book lies in the many examples and how the approach works for all ages.  Whether you have a toddler or a teenager, this book can guide you through making a change. She looks at teens on the phone past midnight with the same lens as toddlers not getting ready in the morning. No, the solutions are not identical, and the same issue would be resolved differently by different families, but the process is the same. It starts with examining your own parenting behavior. Read enough of these examples and you will be saying – wow – I didn’t know life could be any other way. It’s like having Vicki in the room with you.

I love this book . It gives practical, yet individual help, for every family. And that quote on the cover? It’s what I told Vicki when I read the advanced copy.

Want to read Vicki Hoefle’s new book? Add a comment to enter the Straight Talk on Parenting book Give-Away!