What Does Your Child Expect from You? — In 300 Questions

In the introduction the authors explain where the questions came from: from families who consult them in their clinics, but also from people who approach them all over Turkey — on beaches, at village weddings, on planes and city ferries. One heading sums up the book's spirit: «We are not all-knowing gurus.» The answers are grounded in scientific findings but should not be read as «immutable commandments»; some are left open to different views depending on culture, technology and philosophy of life. Such modesty is rare in parenting books.

The sleep section opens with a lovely idea: sleep is a separation that happens every night. Each evening the child leaves its parents for a world it does not quite know and wants to be sure it will find everything as it left it in the morning. Yankı Yazgan also explains this through evolution: tens of thousands of years ago sleeping was dangerous, and our ancestors could only sleep in groups, taking turns on watch — hence the child's need for someone nearby. Practical information follows: REM and non-REM sleep, children spending the first two to three hours in deep sleep, newborns sleeping 16–20 hours and one-year-olds about 13, sleep disruption after six months as stranger anxiety develops. Figures are given, but with the immediate reassurance: «these are averages; don't panic.»

In «IQ-Boosting Toys» a parent asks whether special flashcards and videos can raise their baby's IQ by 5–7 points. Yazgan's answer is one of the best in the book: glorifying intelligence this much leads us to miss the child's real needs — to love and be loved, to spend time eye to eye. «A father may be prouder that his child recognises a square on a card or a brand in an advert than that he says ‘Good morning, Daddy.’ Which should we prefer?» The brain is wired for connection, and this emotional exchange lays the groundwork for empathy and the desire to speak.

The media section, newly written by Onur Tuğçe Poyraz Fındık, is highly topical. She avoids giving a rigid answer to «how many hours of screen time at what age», since such answers go out of date within a few years. Instead she offers a driving-licence analogy: a child should «drive» with an «instructor» beside them until they have mastered the safety rules of the digital world and learned to notice when they are tired and take a break. Content choice comes first, time second; a total ban only makes the parent look «old-fashioned and clueless about technology». Still, concrete guidance is given: no more than an hour a day on weekdays for primary school, three hours for middle school — adjusted to the family's actual daily routine.

The answer about a child who cannot tear himself away from the screen is also noteworthy: some children, because of attention, learning or social-skill difficulties, cling to screens «like a misused painkiller»; in such cases professional support is needed. Rather than shouting, parents are advised to sit beside the child, play the last part of the game together and ease the transition.

The weakness lies in the format itself: each of the 300 questions gets a page or two, and some complex topics (ADHD or divorce, for example) remain brief. Some answers repeat one another. Even so, it is one of the most reliable and humane guides to this age group in Turkish.

• Parent's question — expert's answer format (each answer signed with the author's initials)
• Highlighted key-idea boxes within the text
• 21 topics covering both mental and physical health