It makes a valuable companion piece for Baby and Child Care. I wish I had been able to write it myself,"" writes Dr. Benjamin Spock in a foreword. Like Spock, Weisberger writes with amiable, affectionate good sense, simplifying parental approaches to child management but never underestimating the concern and just plain hard work involved. The author's main emphasis is on fostering in the child both a sense of responsibility and the security of loving family acceptance. Do demand socially acceptable behavior but always provide a pressure valve for the various growing-up fears and angers of young children. The first chapter is about toilet training, when ""you are asking your child to do something your way for the very first time."" Then the author takes up common parent/child battle areas always with reference to chronological age profiles and needs: sleeping, eating, fighting, dawdling, tantrums, etc. There are chapters on separations, temporary and permanent, hospitalizations, divorce, and the role of fathers. In dealing with the very real fears of children in everyday and unusual circumstance, the parent, perhaps using the ""parallel story"" technique (in which you tell the child a story which illustrates his own fears) can help fill in the gaps in the total picture which the child cannot understand, while letting him know you accept his feelings. Laced with amusing anecdotes, a down-to-earth manual for the large majority of parents who want a brief workable guide to child care.