Plugged-in Parenting: How to Raise Media-Savvy Kids with Love, Not War

This is horrible poorly written garbage designed for parents without a brain or ability to sort through complex issues without an authority figure telling them what to think - abandon easy solutions and religion telling you how to relate to your children.

Plugged-In Parenting: How To Raise Media-Savy Kids With Love, Not War is a wonderful book for parents, families, and people who work with kids and teens in our culture and society today.

the book was written by Bob Waliszewski. he's a parent and former youth pastor. Waliszewski is also the director of Plugged-In Online, a website visited a million times a month by parents and families looking for information about current entertainment.

Plugged-In Parenting is full of wonderful insights, stories, and quotes. Waliszewski is a great writer and story-teller. parents will see themselves in the book and be able to relate to the challenges that come with raising children and engaging in the culture and media that surrounds us.

this book is a must-read for parents, pastors, preachers, and anyone working with children and young people.

we need to be informed; we need to be relevant; and we need to be discerning. this book is a great resource to help with all three.

This book was provided for me free from Tyndale House for the purpose of review. My only responsibility is to read the book and write a review be it good or bad.

I highly recommend this book to parents, grandparents, teachers, youth workers, virtually anyone who wants to affect students and children positively.

Mr. Waliszewski gives the tools to help parents become media-savvy and raise children to be media-savvy without a battle.

Our media (television, movies, internet) is influencing our next generation. What is being produced is painting for our children and young adults a world that has no regard for human life both before and after birth, abortion and euthanasia. Personal responsibility is overlooked and the attitude is to question authority. Also, the complete disrespect of people by the language and actions are feeding our culture of fighting and immorality, Therefore, it is important to know what the lingo is and know how to communicate truth to our children so they can learn to make discerning decisions.

We, as Christians, must learn how to mold the culture by taking a positive stand and not allow the culture to mold us nor our children.

I highly recommend this book for absolutely anyone interested in making a difference in our media-saturated world.

Plugged-In Parenting: How to Raise Media-Savvy Kids with Love, Not War is a Focus on the Family publication by Bob Waliszewski, director of pluggedin.com (a Christian-based movie review website). In PIP, Waliszewski seeks to help parents decide where, and how, to draw the line in family media discernment. PIP provides evidence of the impact of media on individuals and societies, and covers important topics, such as responding to our children's objections and tips for ending fights over entertainment.

Because I love Focus on the Family and all things Christian-parenting, I fully expected to love this book. The chapter titles were promising, and indeed I expect many families will be helped by this book. Nonetheless, I was a little disappointed in the read. Perhaps because our family already shares Waliszewski's goals and vision, I found little that was new or inspiring in this book. The amount of novel insight in PIP could easily be summed up in a significantly shorter publication for those of us who already employ media discernment in our homes. Consider your family's current entertainment status before deciding on this book.

I received this book free from Tyndale for the purpose of providing my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.

Whether your battle zone is the screen in a theater or on an electronic device, you don't have to unplug to find peace. Plugged In Parenting can help you make media choices that bring your family closer together. Today's parents are between a rock and a hard place. They want to protect their kids from the worst of the internet, TV, movies, video games and music but they don't want to wreck their relationships with their children by always saying no. Bob Waliszewski shows you the why and how of teaching your kids to make wise entertainment choices.

We all know that movies and music can not only influence our behaviors and thought patterns but our children's as well. The first part of this book helps you consider and decide where you stand as a parent with all the various types of media we encounter everyday and all the world throws at us on a regular basis. The second part of the book focuses on making rules, being able to enforce chosen rules and doing it without creating enemies and strife within our family units. The last part of the book shows you to maintain your choices and be able to share them with others without coming across as offensive or better than they are.

This book is a very easy read yet it is filled with scripture reference to help you make choices, statistics that are incredible, personal stories that you can relate to and even several question and answer sections. I loved the idea of creating a "Family Covenant for God-honoring media choices" so that we as parents and as parents of our children are all on the same page. We have movie nights in our home about once a week where we all pile in the living room, make popcorn and watch a movie together. Waliszewski suggest that instead of just a "movie night" you use Movie Night Discussion Guides to turn a movie into a Biblically based teaching moment as well. One suggestion was to take the Bible verse Psalm 101:3 and put it above any media device (TV, computer, etc.) as a visual reminder of our Christian call to guard our hearts and minds. If you want to go even further you can check out the ClearPlay Machine through PluggedIn.com that allows you to rent or buy DVD movies and some TV series and then view them without the offensive content.

Waliszewski is also the creator of Plugged In online where you can find detailed, trustworthy information on all types of today's entertainment media. He also hosts a weekly Plugged In Movie Reviews on over 600 radio stations as well as a dozen other countries. If you want your kids to learn how to effectively deal with today's media bombardment in a Christian way, I highly recommend you read this book. It will not only challenge you to make changes for your children but for your life as well.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book to review through Tyndale House Publishers. No monetary compensation was recevied and the opinions expressed here are my own.