Want to find out what Vicki Hoefle's Parenting on Track program is all about without signing up for her six-week class? Read her new book instead. In Duct Tape Parenting: A Less is More Approach to Raising Respectful, Responsible & Resilient Kids, the East Middlebury resident explains her approach based on the parenting philosophy of Alfred Adler. Does our tiger-mothering, helicopter-parenting, baby-wearing society need another advice book? Well, maybe this one. Hoefle wants parents to use the duct tape of the title to zip their lips and stop nagging their offspring. She argues that kids want to be self-sufficient and don't really need someone to pick up their socks, pack their lunches or wake them up in time for school. Hoefle's new tome whittles her 20 years of teaching experience down to five chapters focused on what she sees as parents' biggest stumbling blocks. Then, section two introduces some solutions. If her funny, familiar anecdotes about messy rooms resonate, you might want to take one of her classes after all.
Duct Tape Parenting: Bibliomotion, Inc., 224 pages, $19.95. Hoefle signs copies of the new book at three local venues this month: Tuesday, October 9, Flying Pig Bookstore Shelburne, 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday, October 23, Next Chapter Bookstore, Barre, 7 p.m.; Monday, October 29, Talent Skate Park, Burlington, 7 p.m. More info about Parenting on Track at parentingontrack.com.
