I have to admit that I very nearly didn't buy this book. I found Babywise to be overly harsh, or at least it seemed to be at the time. I bought Toddlerwise, however, and was really impressed. First of all, let me say that my son is exactly two years old. With that in mind, he is at the middle to older end of the Toddlerwise spectrum. The thing is, as a parent, I was doing a lot of what Toddlerwise recommends before I bought the book. The book just filled in some BIG gaps for me. The first time I tried roomtime my son "read" to himself in his room for 20 minutes while I actually cleaned one of our bathrooms without once having to "yell" at him to stay away from the cleaning supplies. Also looking him in the eye when correcting him and expecting a response really helps us both. He is learning and I feel like I am actually getting through. I couldn't be more pleased!

I really got a lot out of Babywise - my daughter was sleeping through the nite at 5 weeks. And now that she's almost 14 months, I thought it natural to buy Toddlerwise. Even after reading the negative reviews, I still wanted to read the book to make my own judgment. But the only new information I learned was in one chapter that's not even written by Ezzo. And I got nothing out of that chapter - maybe some parents would be able to tell their toddler to sit on a blanket and play with a specific toy ("Provide a few toys but instruct your toddler to stay on the blanket until Mommy says its time to get off." p.45), but my daughter wouldn't be able to sit still for a minute! And I feel it's criminal to restrict any child to a blanket for a set time with a timer - let alone a toddler! I'm all for structure and routine, and we have a fairly structured day at home. But the sample daily routine that is offered seems so micro-managed, I'm not sure how any parent would have time to do anything else but manage their child's playtime! Here's the example from p.61 (paraphrased):

"7am - Get children up & dressed, breakfast
8am - Free Play Time
9:30am - Structured Play Time
10am - Blanket Time
10:30am - Structured Time with Mom
11:30am - Structured Time with Siblings
12pm - Lunch, clean up, read books until nap
1pm - Nap
3pm - Gym Class
4pm - Structured Play Time with Siblings
4:30pm - Blanket Time
5pm - Video Time
5:30pm - Dinner, clean up, etc (Mom&Dad - Couch Time)
6:30pm - Family Time with Dad & Mom
7pm - Time with Dad
7:30pm - Bedtime"

This example is a simplified version - it's more complicated because the 2 siblings are sometimes doing different things. I chose to paraphrase just one of the siblings' schedules here. I would highly suggest not buying this book - it's a waste of money. Most of the negative comments are warranted - I couldn't imagine ever treating my daughter the way that Ezzo suggests in this book. Even after using the Babywise method, I still feel that using the ideologies in this book border on neglect! Please don't do such a dis-service to your children!

This book has some great common-sense advice on the behaviour-management aspect of parenting. It emphasizes the use of routine to help your child understand boundaries (which in turn are set from your beliefs and goals in parenting), which I've found very helpful.

For me there were three disappointing aspects to this book:

1. No bibliography. A lot of statements were made about research findings, but then not backed up because they were not quoted and referenced. I had to take the authors' word for both the research and interpretation of findings.

2. Contradictory in parts. I kept feeling as if the authors were making explicit statements that were later implicitly contradicted by the advice given. But that could be my faulty understanding of the text.

3. It's very short, which makes for easy reading. However I would have preferred more and in-depth discussions on the many facets of parenting toddlers. E.g, parenting children according to their different natures (mentioned but not gone into). I have a child who is naturally shy and observant, rather than a participator - how do I best encourage her (if at all) to come out of her shell?

In my present stage of parenting (mother of a single 18-month-old child! :-) ) I would highly recommend this as a great book on toddler behaviour management. However I have given it two stars as it is touted as a book on parenting, but imho it covers only one aspect of that - albeit an important one!

This book looks as if it went to publishing without editing. I have read a lot psychology and find the subject interesting. I am educated - professional engineer and attorney. I usually understand what I am reading. But this book forced me to re-read sentences and paragraphs because I could not understand what the authors were saying. Often I just moved on. Either the authors were not sure themselves or I just couldn't get it. But two things were clear, the book is written almost exclusively in the passive voice with high-sounding amorphous words that seem to be intended to leave you either in awe or just completely frustrated. It reads like a first draft that went straight to publishing. My wife found reading it painful at best and she never made it through. The authors also seemed little concerned about citing their authority. Do they just make this stuff up? I felt the advice was unreliable.

We started with Ezzo's book "On Becoming Babywise" while we were still pregnant with our first child, and found the book's advice to be easily adaptable to fit our own personal parenting philosophy and style. True to the book's claims, our daughter was sleeping through the night (10+ hours) by the time she was seven weeks old.

She is now 10 months old, and so we read the Toddlerwise book to prepare us for the coming year. We found it to be just as helpful and insightful as the Babywise book, and already feel somewhat prepared to face our daughter's toddler years with confidence.