Growing Up Social by Dr. Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane Book Review

Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World by Dr. Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane is a book about how to raise kids to be responsible in a digital world.  With so many media outlets, it's easy for kids to check out of real life and create an online life that affects health, relationships and emotional well being.  The authors address many valid questions and give parents guidelines on how to teach children to be balanced in their digital activity.  They gave several tips of how to engage kids in the real life activities as well as safety for online time.  They focused on teaching several skills (affection, anger management, appreciation, apology and attention) that are desperately needed in youth today as well as impact their future relationships.  They also shared many personal stories and situations where critical decisions need to be made concerning the use of technology in the home.  Both Arlene and Gary gave unique perspectives to this subject and offer parents hope and specific actions to make the digital overload a manageable part of everyday life as kids these days are being raised with social media.



I highly recommend that every parent read this book.  It is a book that is current with our culture.  I really appreciated all the positive ways these authors addressed social media.  This was a book to help families not only teach our children the social skills they need, but also to manage the social media that is so prevalent in our society.  They made some wonderful suggestions and practical points in how to make the digital world be a part of a child's rather life rather than most of it.  I know that I am being very careful of what social media my kids are using, but I think I need to be more diligent in how I manage my social media use.  It's a different world that we need to navigate.  This book will be a great tool to guide families to make good choices in this media saturated society.

*I was given a complimentary copy of this book by the author for the purpose of this review.  All opinions are my own.*