My New Bible

About a month ago, I happened to find one of best books ever written. Practical in everyway but more importantly critical to the raising of our children, this book makes more sense and has changed my outlook on parenting more than any one thing in the last seven years of my parenting experience. In some parts I was screaming my agreement while in others I was forced to realistically view my own parenting techniques. Not always fun, but always helpful in improving. Such quotes that resonated with me are as follows:

“Parenting is not an engineering task, it’s an endurance task. It requires patience and a high tolerance for boredom. Engineering is based on the gathering of knowledge so that if you do something right the first time, you don’t have to do it over and over again. Efficiency, however, is inimical to child rearing. Parenting is a problem to be solved everyday. It’s a repetitive quotidian task. That’s what maximizes parent-child interaction and persuades children that they are loved. Seeing kids as a well-designed product is a disease of really smart people. They feel they have to make it a task worthy of their time.”

“Just because medication works doesn’t make it an ethical substitute for giving kids the proper attention at home and school.”

“[Parenting] is the sole source of their self-esteem. People misunderstand what parenting is all about. In truth, you don’t have to be really smart to be a good parent. You have to be imperfect and you have to be reliable. It requires empathy and a fair amount of self-knowledge on the part of the parents. But you don’t have to be brilliant.”

“[Attachment] doesn’t take flash cards, Baby Einstein, or Mommy and Me classes. It doesn’t require custom-made nursery furniture or cashmere swaddling blankets.”

“Parental perfectionism inhibits creativity, curiosity, and innovation; it creates a classroom where only results matter. It makes children unwilling to experiment, explore the unknown, or take even the slightest risk.”

At this point I know you are all dying to read this book and are wondering the title. It really will change your parenting, and if it doesn’t than you suck. The book is, “A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting”. I encourage everyone to read it, buy it, loan it from the library or a friend. Happy Reading!