
Punishment-Free Parenting
The Brain-Based Way to Raise Kids Without Raising Your Voice
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Narrated by:
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Jon Fogel
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Tina Payne Bryson
About this listen
A no-judgment, simple-to-follow step-by-step parenting guide to help you manage your emotions, meet your child’s needs with empathy, and create a calmer home—without ever resorting to threats or punishment
Every parent has had that painful moment they realize there must be a better way to raise kids than the old-school yelling, threats, bribes, and punishment way.
For Jon Fogel, that realization set him on a path toward wholeness: understanding himself, learning about the brain, and empowering parents to raise kids who live physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy lives. In just a few short years, he became an inspiration to more than a million people around the world who were also striving to do better and become the best parents they can be.
Now, with Punishment-Free Parenting, Fogel—parenting educator, pastor, and father of four—brings to parents the hard-won wisdom from his research and work as a parenting coach. With memorable stories, advice, and compassionate insight, he offers moms and dads a clear path to their own wholeness as parents—from learning to recognize and name their own emotional triggers to responding with a deeper awareness of their children’s developmental processes. What emerges is a collaborative partnership with children—free from the drama and pain of punishment.
In a book packed with the most helpful research findings from child developmental psychology, neurology, and pediatric medicine, listeners will meet other parents just like them and children just like their own who have learned to use the tools and tips that Fogel provides. Punishment-Free Parenting is the simple, accessible, no-judgment book for parents who want the support and guidance of a dad just like them.
©2025 Jon Fogel (P)2025 Random House AudioCritic reviews
“Jon Fogel speaks directly to our history of being parented to help release us from old, unhelpful patterns that we may have adopted as we adapted to our own childhood experiences of punishment. With humor and wisdom, our supportive guide emphasizes what discipline is all about—intentional teaching, parental regulation, and attuned relationships—in order to become the parents we wish we’d had. The children growing in such a caring, connecting, and compassionate home will be given the starting point to thrive in the challenging world in which we all now live.”—Daniel J. Siegel, MD, executive director of the Mindsight Institute and founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center, author of The Whole-Brain Child
“[An] empathetic debut . . . The guidance is compassionate, and Fogel’s exhortation ‘to extend to ourselves the same grace and forgiveness that we aspire to extend to our children’ will help readers work through their own emotional baggage. Parents will find this a balm.”—Publishers Weekly
“Punishment-Free Parenting is not only a gift to parents, it’s a gift to humanity. Jon Fogel did what he does best: dig into the scientific research to help us all understand why punishment is a path worth avoiding, and providing other practical and effective paths we can take instead. As a therapist, an author, and a parent, I found this book engaging, helpful, and hopeful. A must-read for anyone determined to give their children a secure experience.”—Eli Harwood, author of Raising Securely Attached Kids and executive director for Jai Institute of Parenting
Validating and useful
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Deep understanding of toddlerhood and human nature
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Exceptional Parenting Advice
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Love it hit all the right spots
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Fogel has put a lot of time into researching best available evidence and combining it into a usable model.
Books I felt this book drew wisdom from, some of which are cited, include, The Whole Brain Child, The Book you Wish your Parents had Read, Unconditional Parenting, The Conscious Parent, The School of Life, How to Talk so Little Kids will Listen and Listen so Little Kids will Talk, as well as research into Polyvagal Theory and Trauma. In addition, the author draws on on other books, research, and his own experiences.
I may have rated this book higher if I wasn't as familiar with the surrounding literature. That being said, Fogel's interpretations of that literature are highly accurate, and his integration of them into a single model are very useful for parents, including those who haven't got the time to read masses of literature or to do a Psychology Masters. I would have liked the book to be longer but that's because I enjoyed it. I will need to listen again to learn the acronym used at the end; it could have been improved by recapping this a few times. At times, the structure was a little tangential, but that's how my brain works too so I was fine with that.
I really appreciated the author's honesty in his own shortcomings as a parent and reminders about comparing ourselves to an unrealistic standard. I felt like this made the book more relatable and the task of using punishment free parenting less daunting.
A very good book, worth reading, and I will be recommending it.
Well researched, practical and realistic
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