This book had some very interesting parts! I’m glad I read it but it had a lot of dry parts. Like really dry. There were absolutely some parts I skipped and jumped over.
I do recommend all parents take a peak at this book to really see how important reading to your kids is. And spread the word to any parents you know.
It has taken some time and reflection to realize how selfish it was for me to sign up for a marathon at this point in my life without fully thinking through the repercussions for my family.
I am not saying running races is selfish, or being a wife and running marathons is selfish or even being a mom and running marathons is selfish. Simply that for me, at this time in my life, it was.
I didn’t really discuss it with my husband before I signed up….oops, I’ve been married for 5 years and sometimes still forget I’m in a partnership now.
Running a marathon is a HUGE time commitment and can be a large financial one as well. Both of these were/are true for me. Currently I am a slow runner so my long runs took a LONG time. Meaning, we lost most of our Saturdays (during my training) to my long run, especially when you add in that my youngest (and sometimes my oldest) still needs to nap. This means we had no opportunities to camp or do any overnight trips this last summer.
Financially it was a big commitment as well since I chose a marathon in another state (my home state). I did use this as an opportunity/excuse to spend time with my family there but this meant plane tickets, days of extra food costs, and all those miscellaneous costs that come with traveling.
I am not saying I regret doing it. My husband was pretty gracious about it all. My kids got to see family and we as a family got to do an awesome Disneyland trip and make lots of memories.
Also, doing something for me is not selfish (that is not what I am saying) but doing something that impacted my whole family for a big part of the year…….was pretty selfish…..in MY case.
I love to run and will keep running, I love doing races too, but this isn’t my time for racing. That time will come again. For me and my family, this is the time for healthy fitness for me…..and lots of family fun together.
This coming year I look forward to lots of family camping and fun family weekend trips.
What are you looking forward to in 2024?
I thought this book was so interesting. The author spent a significant amount of time with three different cultures in three different parts of the world and really looked at how they parented day to day, week to week, and month to month and how it affected their children. And the differences between what they do and what western societies do. It was very eye-opening and made so much sense. We as a western society have come up with all of these rules and guidelines just in the last 100 plus years as opposed to other societies that have been raising kids the same way for thousands of years.
I don’t want to give away too much about the book in case you want to read it, but I love that it wasn’t dry. She talked about her own experiences with her daughter Rosie, who she describes as a wild child.
She’s very candid about how much her and her daughter buttheads and how much they end their days in tears and yelling and the fighting. So she really was coming at this not just as an author or a journalist or reporter but as a mother looking for better solutions for her family.
All in all, I highly recommend this book.
I very much enjoyed this book. I’m finding that I really love learning about parenting practices and different ways to make me a better parent.
It is also hard though the more I read to distinguish between the different ways things I like and don’t like some of them of course say the complete opposite thing so you really have to do it feels right for you.
This book was equal parts, engaging and enjoyable, followed by some very dry clinical things to back it up. I do enjoy knowing that there’s science behind what they’re saying and studies to back it up, but sometimes they went a little too deep in the studies and I glazed over a little bit. But overall I thought it was a really good book and I very much enjoyed it.
Trailing the blonde 