What is a happy child? Can we make our children happy? We know that we cannot be “perfect” parents, and that in any case we are not the sole masters of our children's happiness.

But can we predispose them for happiness? How can we plant seeds for present as well as future happiness? How can we help them to become strong, resilient and capable of adapting to life's risks?

Didier Pleux describes three educational goals, which he regards as the pillars of lasting well-being:

• Strengthening children's sense of selfhood to help them develop self-esteem and accept their own limitations.

• Living with others: developing sociability and empathy.

• Adapting to reality: learning the significance of effort and to tolerate frustration.

But there is a fourth pillar, which concerns parents: we must accept that we are not perfect, i.e. we must learn the art of being fallible while retaining credibility. To do so we must begin by questioning our own affective patterns, and the beliefs we hold that may inhibit us in our parental role.

This book will help us understand our children and the parents that we are. It describes how to give children, and the adults they will become, an educational grounding in happiness.

Didier Pleux is an expert in education and the author of many successful books. Drawing on his long experience as a psychotherapist, educator and parental coach, he offers us here a theory of happiness for children.

This is a highly practical work, with useful advice, examples and tests.

Didier Pleux is the author of many highly successful works, such as Peut mieux faire ! and De l'enfant roi à l'enfant tyran. A clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, he is the founder of the French Institute for Cognitive Therapy.