Blog Tour: Modern Manners for Moms and Dads

Be a Confident Parent from Day One

“Evie and Sarah artfully marry expert etiquette and parenting advice in a fun, modern, and valuable way.” ―Heidi Dulebohn, international cultural consultant and etiquette expert

#1 New Release in Children's Studies Social Science

Parenting doesn’t happen in a bubble, but you wouldn’t know that from other parenting books. Own this humorous, often irreverent take on what parenting in public is really like.

Real-world advice on embarrassing moments parents with young kids face every day. When you’re raising kids, you’re thrown into dilemmas you could never have dreamed up. A diaper disaster in the middle seat during take-off. Naked baby bath photos your mother-in-law posts online without permission. An unexpected gift that leads to a tantrum in front of the gift-giver. How can you turn these into opportunities to be an A+ parent and friend, role model, and member of your community?

They've done the research so you don't have to. Authors Sarah Davis, Ed.D., and Evie Granville, M.Ed., are educators, manners mavens, and creators of a blog and podcast dedicated to parenting etiquette. Their two families total six young kids. Modern Manners for Moms & Dads unpacks the complicated social code for parents of kids ages 0 to 5. Sarah and Evie help you discover a public parenting style within a unique framework, analyze your gut reactions to sticky situations, and choose a course of action that balances the needs of parent, child and others.

Written by and for busy parents, this guide includes parenting tips, lists, charts, pop quizzes, personal anecdotes, and practical advice. Also offered is child rearing guidance from real experts on:

• Leading your family with kindness and awareness
• Setting a good example (and realistic expectations) for little ones
• Maintaining friendships and good communication

If you are a fan of etiquette books like A Kid’s Guide to Manners, Dude That’s Rude, or 365 Manners Kids Should Know, you’re going to love Modern Manners for Moms & Dads (Kids 0–5).

Sarah Davis, Ed.D., and Evie Granville, M.Ed., are etiquette experts whose advice reaches nearly 600,000 parents and caregivers each month and has been featured by Parents, MSN, The Washington Post, the Associated Press, Reader’s Digest, and other major media outlets. They are the hosts of a five star–rated podcast with the same titular name Modern Manners for Moms and Dads, speakers, parenting coaches, and moms to six young kids between them. Their mission is to acknowledge all the external factors that affect our parenting and provide the knowledge and skills to navigate them with confidence, clarity, and character.

With their combined expertise in early child development, education, communication, and etiquette, Evie and Sarah teach research-based strategies that give parents and children a powerful social advantage linked to relationship-building, academic success, and resiliency. Their advice stems from their professional experience in the classroom, their research, as well as their “hands-on training” as mothers.

And here are the links to purchase the book:

1. Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mZ9w64 [affiliate link]
   
2. Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/modern-manners-for-moms-dads-m-ed-evie-granville/1135637280?ean=9781642503319
   
3. Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/modern-manners-for-moms-dads-practical-parenting-solutions-for-sticky-social-situations-for-kids-0-5/9781642503319
   
4. Target: https://www.target.com/p/modern-manners-for-moms-dads-by-evie-granville-sarah-davis-davis-paperback/-/A-81016747

Guest Post:

All books have an origin story. All friendships do too. In our case, those two stories overlap.

About ten years ago, we became neighbors in adjoining townhouses, sharing a wall and the fact that we were new moms, teachers by profession, and writers at heart.

Our friendship grew around a routine we set for ourselves: meet up each morning and push our babies in strollers while we talked about everything, from what it meant to us to become stay-at-home moms, to the pros and cons of wearing a nursing cover while breastfeeding.

We shared so much of our lives, from car seat recommendations to sleep-training challenges to advice on sticky social situations. In fact, as we grew closer, lots of our calls and conversations started with, “You won’t believe what just happened to me!” Because every time we left the house (or welcomed others in), there were opportunities to feel overwhelmed, embarrassed, and even judged.

It was little things, like the businessman on the airplane saying, “Well, I sure do hope your baby’s going to be a quiet traveler!” Or the glares of strangers during a toddler’s tantrum in the middle of a grocery run. But it was also bigger things, like tough talks with family members about unwanted advice and friends when our kid no longer got along.

From our wider circle of friends and all we saw on social media, we knew we weren’t the only ones dealing with this question of how to be an A+ parent and friend, role model, and community member. So we put our heads together and called on our combined expertise in child development, education, and communications to come up with a method that any parent or caregiver can use to balance what we discovered were three competing priorities in social situations:

1. The child’s wishes and well-being

2. The parent or caregiver’s comfort and boundaries

3. The expectations of everyone else

We came up with a framework and a quiz to help you identify which of the three you instinctively prioritize. If you’ve ever taken a personality quiz like the Enneagram or Myers-Briggs, you know that learning about yourself can bring such personal growth! The same is true for our quiz, which helps you discover when your “Parenting Perspective,” as we call it, is helping you shine or holding you back. 

Take, for instance, the example of the businessman preemptively complaining about a baby on a flight. If you’re the type of person who hates making others uncomfortable (we call these Constellation Parents), you might panic when your baby starts to cry at takeoff, even though we all know babies fuss because of the pressure change in their ears, not because of poor parenting. Here’s where a Constellation, while well intentioned, needs to change perspectives to prioritize their child--offering the baby a bottle, holding and comforting them, and ignoring the judgment of others. They need to behave more like a Crescent, the parent who thinks of their child first.

But, of course, each Perspective has its strengths and weaknesses. And each parent can learn to judge a sticky social situation through the lens of their Parenting Perspective, moving away from their instinctive reaction when it’s not serving them (or others) well. This is the beauty of Modern Manners for Moms & Dads: it’s not simply a list of dos and don’ts, but also a tool to learn and grow as a parent, to examine your instincts, and sometimes learn to pivot.

Thank you to Amy for graciously allowing us to share our story, and for sharing her thoughts on Modern Manners for Moms & Dads. If you’d like to learn more, please take our quiz to discover your Parenting Perspective and join our amazing community on Facebook, called Talking Modern Manners for Moms and Dads.

Sarah Davis, Ed.D., and Evie Granville, M.Ed.

My Review: 

Authors, Evie Granville, M.ED and Sarah Davis ED.D have written a great advice book with their newly released Modern Manners for Moms and Dads: Practical Parenting Solutions for Sticky Social Situations (For Kids 0–5). I wished I had this book handy when my children were smaller. It would have been a perfect addition to add to my bookshelf. It does have some wonderful tips that I am hoping will help with my older ones. 

I am giving Modern Manners for Moms and Dads four and a half stars. I recommend it for readers who have younger children. I believe it is a keeper. 

I received Modern Manners for Moms and Dads from the publisher. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.