Book Review - The Contemporary Family: What Parents and Children Need to Know Better Yourself Books, Mumbai, Mob. 9745448182; Price Rs. 280/-

Every book that has tried to reflect on the structural changes, chaotic internal relations and the pressing issues confronting contemporary families often overlooks or fails to discuss certain contentious questions making us realize the urgent need for a comprehensive and integrated volume. The spanking new publication The Contemporary Family: What Parents and Children Need to Know edited by Dr. Thomas Kuzhinapurath is unique in the catalogue of books imparting family values as it provides a balanced research-based analysis exploring the diverse and complex aspects of the pressures of modern family relationships. This insightful text is a considerable accomplishment for it integrates biblical, ethical, sociological, and clinical perspectives into the understanding of present-day families.
    
Put together by an outstanding group of scholarly intellectuals from a wide array of disciplines, this all-encompassing and absorbing handbook chews over varied talking points on every facet of family life. Divided into 20 topic-specific sections, this compilation of academic essays offers profound wisdom and understanding on how to transform one’s home into a place of abiding love, happiness and prosperity. The introductory chapter concerns family as the most precious and greatest gift to mankind, the bedrock upon which society is built and the common challenges families face today. The succeeding string of chapters ponder over the pro-life convictions and the sanctity of life, the developmental stages that every human being passes through – infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood and old age and the dangers and traps in store for us in each stage. 

    
This book devotes chapters to deliberate about the perils and risks commonly encountered in children’s development. It discusses at length the effective ways to discipline the child, the guidelines for media use and screen time, derailed adolescence and juvenile delinquency, healthy parenthood and parenting styles, the role of parents in the education of their children as well as in growing into responsible and disciplined citizens, and the importance of teaching confidence, determination, hard work and self-reliance. The book also delves into the significance of family health, the benefits of reading as a family, the need for a farming culture in each family for self-sufficiency, the importance of family counselling, the need for family budget and money management, and the utmost need of developing a media culture in families.
    
Considering what this book has masterly achieved, it will definitely be widely assigned as well as widely read. I learned a lot from reading it and it would be the most essential and educational read to every family stepping into parenthood and childcare. This book instils in us the indispensable values families should strive to embrace for the betterment and well-being of each member of the family. The book is organised and designed in such an accessible way that we just follow the path it has laid out. Each essay boasts high-quality writing as it earns the trust of the reader with its clarity, coherence, comprehensibility and unity. At a time when we witness a culture of divisiveness in our families, this book is relevant and invaluable for it not only teaches how to strengthen family bonds but also to live intentionally, making a difference in the world.