Let’s skip the sugarcoating: today’s kids are drowning in praise, cushions, and participation trophies—and it’s making them weaker. Your Kid’s Not Special is a blunt, unsentimental manifesto for parents who are done playing the emotional butler. If you’re tired of tiptoeing around tantrums, negotiating chores like you’re handling a hostage crisis, and watching other people’s kids treat adults like waitstaff, this book is your rallying cry.

This isn’t about being mean. It’s about being honest. Each chapter dismantles a modern parenting myth—like the cult of self-esteem, the fantasy of “safe spaces,” and the belief that discomfort is trauma—and replaces it with practical strategies for raising competent, self-reliant human beings. You won’t find sticker charts or “gentle parenting affirmations” here. You’ll find checklists that don’t blink, stories from the trenches, and a clear-eyed look at what kids actually need: limits, accountability, consequences, and the ability to be bored without losing their minds.

Written for Gen X and elder Millennials who are done being told their instincts are wrong, this book doesn’t pull punches. It reminds you that your job isn’t to be your child’s friend. It’s to raise someone other people can stand to work with, live with, and love. And that takes grit. Not gimmicks.

If you want your kid to survive in the real world—and maybe even thrive—this book won’t make you feel better. But it will make you parent better. And in the long run, that’s what actually matters.