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#Cheese # QuotsyJan2020 @TK-421

Good.

3/5🦊. Kim Brooks takes us into her world as a mother that was arrested for leaving her four year old son in the car while she ran into the store. She explores, very briefly, different views and anxieties that parents experience in today‘s world. I thought her explorations into each subject were just too short for me. It did make me want to explore more about this topic.

Well that was terrifying. The author leaves her 4 year old son locked in the van with his iPad on a comfortable day while she spends 15 minutes buying something at target, and is arrested after a concerned citizen reports her. The book goes on to address the culture of over parenting and micro managing kids, and how alienating motherhood is.

I finally finished this nonfiction examination of current trends in parenting. It's not a spoiler to say the book came to be because the author left her 4 year old son in the car while she ran into Target to get an item. She is charged with child endangerment as a result. This incident is fully examined and the culture of parenting as a result of fears, at times irrational. (Pictured is one of my small animals 🐒) *continued below 👇🏻

A quiet moment on this Sunday morning. It's a beautiful day here, 53 degrees in December, so I plan to take a walk this morning with my preschooler and toddler and then head out to see family. Hope you all have a nice day today, wherever you may be ☺️
Ps- that is a HUGE cream puff my husband brought home to me last night from an authentic German restaurant in Columbus, OH. It's amazing 😋 with hot tea in a Christmas mug, first time this season 🎄

I picked this one up yesterday. I've had it for awhile but forgot about it a bit. When I saw it on the #npr booklist the other day I decided to start it. Pictured are my small animals in the background. They're making it pretty difficult to actually read 😅

I want to recommend this book to everyone my age and older who grew up playing outside unsupervised and fearless. We are now raising our own kids in a world full of unwarranted fear and we face so much judgment against our choices for OUR families. This book puts a lot of things into perspective. If you never read another book on parenting (I probably won't!), let this one be it.

Brooks takes a long look at what parenting has become (hovering, anxious, keeping up with the Jones‘, competitive), what childhood has become (constrained, over-scheduled, overly shielded from all possible risk), and how that all came to a head in her own life.

“ ‘I think I have the most external locus of control that is humanly possible,‘ I admitted. ‘I feel like my locus of control is one of those distant moons of Jupiter. I basically feel like I have no control over anything.‘
She [Barbara Sarnecka, social scientist at UC-Irvine] told me that if that‘s true, research would suggest that I am not a very happy person.
‘Research doesn‘t lie,‘ I said.”

This book didn't live up to its blurb. It seems to speak more to parents who lack confidence in their parenting, who really worry about keeping up with and how they appear to others. Although the author acknowledges her own privilege, there's still an icky layer of ableism and classism throughout. Her points felt scattered and unfocused. When a significant point/angle did come up, it wasn't fleshed out before moving on. Not a satisfying read.