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As you begin to read this, you might be thinking, "What now, another 'doom and gloom' book

about how society is changing our kids?" No. This is perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd,

change in basic human nature that has eer been obsered and documented in a society which

has the tools to do so. We ask you to discern !or yourseles as you read on.

#an and $ are national sel!help lecturers and authors. $n the last six years we hae traeled the

world speaking in !ront o! large and small groups alike We hae dealt with all ages and many

cultures representing many languages. %y boys are grown and le!t the nest. #an neer had

children, but somehow !elt that someday she would be working with them &she was right. (!

the six published books, none are about children because our work does not !ocus there. )ow

is it, there!ore, that we are authoring a book on this ery sub*ect?

When you are counselors, and you spend close personal time with people, you cannot help but

notice emerging patterns o! human behaior, which then become staples o! your work. (ur

work, like that o! +ouise )ay who published this book, is about sel! empowerment and theraising o! sel! esteem. $t enables people to hope, giing them the power to li!t themseles

aboe the leel o! who they "thought" they were. $t also inoles spiritual healing &not

religion, and encourages sel! examination !or the purpose o! !inding the "od within" !irst,

be!ore searching !or any outside source. $t speaks o! sel!healing, as well as independence

!rom worry, in a changing and worryprone world. $t's tremendously rewarding work but it

makes us notice things.

-ome years ago, people started to talk about speci!ic troubles with their kids. -o what else is

new? hildren are o!ten the greatest blessing in a li!e, and also the greatest challenge. %any

books hae been written about good parenting and child psychology, but what we noticed was

di!!erent.

We started hearing more and more about a new kind o! child, or at least a new kind o!

problem !or the parent. The di!!iculties were odd in nature, in that they represented an

interchange between adult and child that was unexpected and seemingly atypical o! what our

generation had experienced. We ignored it until we started hearing it !rom the pro!essionals

who deal speci!ically with children. They also were reporting similar challenges. %any were

exasperated and at their wit's end. /aycare workers all oer the nation, some o! whom had

worked in their pro!ession !or oer thirty years, were also telling us the same kind o! stories

about how things were somehow di!!erent with the kids. Then we saw something that was

horri!ying. When these "new" problems became acute, there was an oerwhelming propensityto sole the issue by legally drugging the child0

At !irst, we assumed that this was a cultural attribute, re!lecting a changing America. 1art o!

our great American temperament is that we are !lexible and go through remarkable changes,

as no other country can, while keeping a stable goernmental base. Ask any schoolteacher

these days, and they will tell you that our educational system really needs an oerhaul. $t's

probably time, but this isn't reolutionary news and did not inspire us to write this book.

#an and $ work with individualissues and stay away !rom politics or een enironmental

"causes." $t's not that we aren't interested, but rather that our !ocus as counselors and lecturers

is truly about helping men and women personally &een though we o!ten speak to them inlarge groups. (ur premise has always been that each balanced human who has a positie

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outlook and exudes wellbeing is able to make whateer changes necessary in a ery power!ul

way. $n other words, een ast sweeping social change has to start inside the mind and heart

o! one person at a time.

Additionally, we assumed that een i! there were great changes going on with the kids,

pro!essionals and researchers would communicate about this within their industry that the"pros" would also be obsering this eent. 2ears ago we expected to see reports and articles

on "attributes o! the new kids" in elementary educational and daycare periodicals. $t didn't

happen at least not on a scale that would draw much attention, and not in a way !or parents

to be helped or in!ormed.

3ecause it didn't happen, we were rein!orced in our original notion that our own obserations

were probably not as wide spread as we had thought, and again, children are not our !ocus. $t

took seeral years !or us to change our minds and decide that someone had to at least

assemble the in!ormation and report it, no matter how strange it seemed. $t was there0

As you can see, a number o! !actors brought about this book, which you should know aboutbe!ore you blindly take our word !or something that is going to !all into the category o!

"happening all around us but unexplainable."

We hae now reali4ed the !ollowing.

This is not an American phenomenon. We hae now personally seen it on three

continents.

$t seems to go !ar beyond cultural barriers &encompassing multiple languages.

$t has escaped mainstream attention due to the !act that it is *ust too "weird" to

consider in the paradigm o! human psychology, which smugly considers humanity as a

static, unchanging model. As a rule, society tends to beliee in eolution, but only in

the past tense. The thought that we might be seeing a new )uman consciousness

slowly arriing on the planet now -mani!ested in our children goes way beyond

established conseratie thought.

The phenomenon is increasing more reports continue to sur!ace.

$t has been around long enough that many pro!essionals are beginning to obsere it.

There are some emerging answers to the challenges.