herzette

This book was really good but, a bit hard to get into. Its also a little academic. That said, I think it really challenged me, was full of very stimulating meaty research and kind of changed my perspective as a parent. I've always leaned towards attachment parenting and felt a little disjointed from much of common American parenting philosophy, but this book pushed me even further into that camp. I felt like reading the careful research on cultures around the world and how they raise children refreshed my commitment to a high touch, responsive style of parenting and honestly, it exposed some silly ideas I had and some that I'm not sure are silly, but that I've never really thought about and examined for myself. I think its kind of stunning just how "weird" we are on the world stage as a country for the amount of physical contact we give our infants, our attitudes on baby sleep and our understanding of what a child needs from his/her parents. This book was a really impressive reminder. We're kind of alone. I am not giving this book five stars because it feels a bit disjointed and the flow isn't as easy as I would have liked and because the first bit of the book is very dry and theoretical information about evolutionary theory and the author's guesses about our primordial ancestors. I almost quit reading.

2023-03-07 07:48