The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

“In our nobler, calmer, saner moments, we care about nurturing our kids’ minds, increasing their sense of wonder, and helping them reach their potential in all aspects of life. But in the more frantic, stressful, bribe-the-toddler-into-the-car-seat-so-we-can-rush-to-the-soccer-game moments, sometimes all we can hope for is to avoid yelling or hearing someone say, ‘You’re so mean!’”

Siegel and Bryson use the plural first person in this introductory passage to present themselves as personable and empathetic towards their parent readers. Although they use “we/us” to refer to the two of them in other places, in this passage it’s clear that they want to include themselves with parent readers as a larger community.

“What’s great about this survive-and-thrive approach is that you don’t have to try to carve out special time to help your children thrive. You can use all of the interactions you share—the stressful, angry ones as well as the miraculous, adorable ones—as opportunities to help them become the responsible, caring, capable people you want them to be.”

This passage reflects the primary thrust of the entire book—that any moment, and especially the hardest moments, present the possibility of whole-brain integration. It also underscores Meeting Parenting Challenges with Knowledge and Understanding by reinterpreting challenges as opportunities.

“Rather than trying to shelter our children from life’s inevitable difficulties, we can help them integrate those experiences into their understanding of the world and learn from them.”

The Profound Value of Neural Integration is the driving argument throughout the book. In this passage, Siegel and Bryson introduce the idea of integration in respect to experience and understanding of the world as a whole, urging parents to regard even difficult experiences as possibilities for improved integration.