Parenting a Spicy One
- Marriage, Family & Relationships
- Publisher: Revell (Baker Publishing Group)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
Strategies for Raising Your Strong-Willed Child Without Diminishing Their Light · Transform your relationship with your larger-than-life kid (and yourself)· Develop calm, connection-based habits· From mom to a Spicy One (and Spicy One herself)Tired of negotiating with a tiny tyrant? Feeling drained by extreme emotions and unpredictable outbursts--including your own? Do you fear you might be raising a menace but also want to avoid dimming their sparkly light? Does "gentle parenting" advice make you chuckle bitterly because it doesn't work on your kid? Welcome to parenting a Spicy One--a child more loyal to their own soul than to your agenda. Parenting coach and adult Spicy One Mary Van Geffen knows raising these future world changers requires courage and compassion. Based on her experience guiding thousands of parents through her program, she offers a transformative approach to · staying calm during five-alarm tantrums · choosing connection over control · maintaining boundaries without crushing their spirit· finding joy and confidence in parenting this prickly creature · being okay when they are not · parenting with a tenderness you never experienced as a childEach chapter provides small, doable changes to help you become calmer, kinder, and firmer, plus self-reflection questions to help you make space for the exceptional adult your Spicy One will one day become. It's never too late to confidently choose effective, respectful discipline--to transform both your relationship with your larger-than-life kid and yourself.
Endorsements (7)
“When I first met Mary, what stood out to me most was her compassionate honesty. She tells the truth about how it feels to have a child with traits and tendencies you never expected and aren’t prepared for. More importantly, she offers ideas and strategies that help because they honor spicy kids rather than faulting them. I’m so thrilled that Mary is offering the world the chance to better understand spicy kids and to better respond as adults in their lives. Full of wisdom, deeply practical, and marked by Mary’s trademark humor and candor, this book will be a gift across generations of people who will feel seen and supported.”
“This loving, generous guide is an invitation—to connection, creativity, and forgiveness for our understandable parental shortcomings. My only complaint is I wish I had read this book when my Spicy One was younger. Can I have a do-over?”
“I wept, laughed, and read most of the book aloud to my husband. Somebody gets it. Somebody gets us. Somebody gets our kid. We are not alone!”
“Parenting a Spicy One is like a walk-and-talk with a wise, witty friend who gets your kid—and you. Mary Van Geffen is equal parts truth-teller and soul-encourager, offering tools you’ll actually use and stories that make you feel seen. I’m so grateful this wildly practical, big-hearted book exists.”
“If you’ve ever cried in the car after yelling at your kid or just felt like a complete failure because traditional parenting advice doesn’t work on your ‘strong-willed’ child, this book will feel like someone finally gets you. Mary Van Geffen has written the parenting manual I wish I had when my kids were little. She’s funny, compassionate, and real. No judgment, no perfection—just smart strategies, deep empathy, and a huge dose of relief. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and most of all, you’ll finally feel like you’re not screwing everything up. This book is a hug, a how-to, and a total game changer.”
“Raising a strong-willed child is exhausting and lonely. You don’t know what you’re doing, let alone how to do it right, so you just hang on tight, do it scared, and start your kid’s therapy fund. Parenting a Spicy One is unlike any parenting book I’ve ever read. It helps you not to manage your child but to compassionately understand and root for them. Every page is infused with kindness and grounded in hope, not to mention all the wildly helpful tools. A must-read.”
“If you’ve ever lost your cool with a child who repeatedly infuriates you, you’re not alone. Here to the rescue is a deeply honest account of what it’s like to raise perplexing, feisty kids. This book offers personal, relatable stories, practical skills to help you in a wide variety of circumstances, and heaps of kindness to soothe your battered sense of self. This is the book you’ve longed for, written by the right person at the right time!”
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