Bliss: The Marriage AND Parenting Book

In my travels through the marriage and parenting counseling world, I noticed that for some marriage was their pet project. For others it was parenting. And of course there were those who took up golf.There was hardly a book or a seminar or even a counselor that I could disagree with, yet I found that neither discipline helped the other. In other words, despite the fact that a person may have been the most dedicated mother or father, it didn't seem to help them become better or happier spouses. And of course visa versa. There were people who would worship their wives or husbands, yet they were getting nowhere with their children.It seemed like they were the proverbial man in the middle of the boat, on either side were two very self destructive individuals. Each with a drill that were determined to put a hole in the bottom of the boat. These two people represent a persons role as a parent and as a spouse. If they went over to the spouse side and worked on that relationship, then it was the parental role that suffered and the boat sank. Alternatively, if they focused their energies on their children, then their marriage seemed to go down hill.Either way they were sunk.And so was I. Whatever I recommended to people didn't seem to help them in their overall lives. I was frustrated with the current theories on marriage and parenting that were simply not getting the results I wanted for people. So I started delving into the ancient Jewish wisdom to see if I could find a better way.What I uncovered were remarkably simple ideas and approaches that not only got great results but were also applicable to both situations.Soon, I wasn't teaching marriage separate from parenting but combining the two and finding that even in the most entrenched cases, almost immediate results ensued.Not only that, but what I have found, and what hopefully you will find is that you really cannot divide the roles at all. In other words, a good parent is a good spouse.But more than that, the real beauty of "Bliss" is that it really doesn't teach you anything new. You don't have to practice any new habits or techniques to become a great parent or spouse.In other words this book is totally safe. It's not going to involve any new regimen or program and turn you into something you are not.What "Bliss" does is it takes the skills you are great at, and shows you how to apply those same techniques to the other arena. If you find parenting your forte, then you use those skills for marriage, and visa versa."It's remarkable," say many people who attend my seminars. "I didn't know I could be such a good husband/wife - mother/father -- I really know what to do, in fact I've been doing it for years."What Bliss shows you is that the skills you have acquired that makes you a great parent can and should be adapted to work with a spouse. Or, that which makes you a great spouse can be used to be a great parent -- you just need to be shown how.Rabbi Stephen Baars is the author of 'Bliss: The Marriage AND Parenting Book', published 2007 under ISBN 9781419659492 and ISBN 1419659499.