The Sixty Minute Family: An Hour to Transform Your Relationships - For Ever

Rob Parsons
Lion Hudson (2010)
ISBN 9780745953830
Reviewed by Joseph Yurt for Reader Views (3/11)


Can we learn anything worthwhile in sixty minutes?

The answer to that question is an enthusiastic “yes” if you’re reading one of Rob Parsons’ “Sixty Minute” books. Like “The Sixty Minute Father,” his previous book, his new title, “The Sixty Minute Family,” is a wellspring of succinctly written, practical, and easy to take actions that can have a dramatic difference on the dynamics of today’s typical time-constrained, disconnected family. Parsons, the Founder of Care for the Family, offers his expertise, assessments and recommendations in a practical, down-to-earth package wrapped up in humor and wit. His writing style is warm and comfortable.

The book consists of ten inspiring Life Lessons that often seem like common knowledge but which, when taken collectively, are transformed by Parsons into inspiring revelations, for example, his “Time Supermarket” parable. It begins “A vast supermarket opens in your area, but instead of food and drink, it sells ways you can spend your life. Instead of money, the currency is time…the departments in the store are Jobs and Careers, Television and Audio, Social Life, Sleeping, Eating, Personal Hygiene and Family.”

The shopper in the story ultimately realizes that the wise parent starts in the Family Department at the rear of the store to avoid spending all their available time before ever reaching that destination. This excerpt is from “Life Lesson 1, To Make Time for My Family.” Other Life Lessons include: To Discover the Power of Encouragement, To Decide How I Will Parent and To Experience the Magic of Traditions.

“The Sixty Minute Family” is realistic, it offers reasonable steps both parents and children can take to strengthen their family and it motivates the reader to start now.  A fast reader can indeed read the book in sixty minutes.  But however long it takes a parent to read this entertaining little volume, they will get considerably more than sixty minutes worth of valuable insights and inspiration.

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