Happy Parents, Happy Kids by Daisaku Ikeda

Peace activist Daisaku Ikeda’s newly published parenting book

Admit it, you love to see your kids happy; your home is filled with photos of your smiling children; you see their grinning faces peering out from computer screens, bookshelves, even your refrigerator door.

It’s a universal truth that every parent loves to see his or her children happy. But when it comes to raising happy children, you’ll soon find yourself sorting through mountains of complex and conflicting advice. This is what makes HAPPY KIDS, HAPPY PARENTS such a unique and timely parenting book. It takes child rearing back to the basics with clear-headed and sensible guidance that will leave parents smiling in recognition and sighing in relief.

Starting with the Self

The beating heart of HAPPY PARENTS, HAPPY KIDS is this simple message: parents’ most important job is to demonstrate to their children how to live a fulfilling and happy life. (To hear a radio interview with Sean Grover about this book CLICK HERE)

Daisaku Ikeda, a peace activist and Buddhist leader who has spent his lifetime promoting peace, culture, and education, believes that creating harmonious families is vital in creating a more peaceful and harmonious world. Sharing his wisdom and insights, Mr. Ikeda asks parents to deeply reflect on their own behavior and become models for behavior they want to see in their children.

Distilled from Daisaku Ikeda’s selected speeches, essays, and books, HAPPY PARENTS, HAPPY KIDS is organized into themes that every parent will recognize, such as Disciplining With Love, Viewing TV and Video Games and Overcoming Problems at School. Each chapter is edited and organized into inspirational bites that parents can use for daily affirmations. Throughout, Mr. Ikeda skillfully directs parents to polish their own behaviors and view their children with greater compassion and understanding.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll find in Daisaku Ikeda’s book:

Parents’ Love & Sincerity

“You may at times make mistakes, become overwhelmed or lose your temper. What is important, however, is to make wholehearted effort. Children grow up watching their parents. It is not the parents words that children hear. No matter what wonderful things parents may say if their words are not accompanied by action, children will never listen. Children’s lives will be determined by how parents live. The parents’ love and way of life will, like magma beneath the earth’s crust, form the innermost core of children’s hearts and become a source of energy to support the rest of their lives, ” (p.8)

“Every child has a unique mission. There is a budding potential in everyone. I think the greatest nourishment for children’s growth is our trust in them. Some children show their potential early on, while others start to develop later. Whichever the case, we must continue to give children steady encouragement and warm support, believing that their potential will definitely sprout and grow in time. The key is how much we can believe in children.” (p.27)

“More children are being raised in a relatively comfortable environment, one in which people are willing to buy them almost anything they want. If children continue to be indulged in this way, however, they will grow to be people who avoid anything unpleasant and end up weak and defeated in life. In this way, a too comfortable childhood can pave the way to unhappiness later. Rousseau said, “Do you know the surest way of making your child miserable? Let him have everything that he wants.” (p.48)

HAPPY PARENTS, HAPPY KIDS 

draws on the wisdom of Buddhism and reminds readers that parents provide their children with a blueprint for how to live life. In this way, no lecture, order or directive is more powerful than parents’ own behavior. Daisaku Ikeda makes it clear that children absorb their parents’ life-state every moment; no one can match a parent’s influence. As the title suggests, when happiness thrives in the lives of parents, it naturally thrives in their children’s lives as well.