you cannot train away your kid's nature, you must embrace it.

I typically pride myself on NOT being a parent. I'm currently living a fabulous selfish life right now, and it pretty much rocks. I am a realist, and know that this will not last forever. Someday, I will pop out a little nugget and probably resent that child for the rest of my life. For the sake of this next review, let's pretend that I am excited about the whole parenting thing, ready and willing to learn everything I can to be the best one I can be. Like all of you, I'm sure.

Conor Gallagher came up with a very catchy title for his parent how-to guide, If Aristotle's Kid Had an iPod: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parents. I did enjoy how he compared kid whispering to dog whispering right in chapter 1, that instantly made sense to me. But parents know best that sometimes you can use every trick in the book, and nothing works, which is what the rest of the chapters touch on. This is not your typical parenting book. Gallagher is very philosophical about the whole thing, letting Aristotle do a lot of the teaching since human nature is what he knew best. Gallagher includes both Biblical, scientific study, real life, and literature examples to make his points, which held my childless teacher interest.

What I really got from the book? It has an overwhelming amount of (good) information, which I clearly sped through to get this review out in a timely manner, so make sure you take your time reading through each chapter. Also, to really bring Aristotle's ideas to life, I am going to have to change my own thinking and behavior. And if I do follow this philosophy on parenting, I will have created this beautiful little creature with a happy life who will just be ruined by public school and society in general. That's just the pessimist in me, I would absolutely recommend this book to those of you thinking about becoming parents, or who have little babies. Your kids aren't ruined yet, you't got some time to read.