Since I waited until the respectable age of twenty-eight to get hitched and my new hubby is 6 years older than me, the discussion of when to being trying for kids has already started (waiting until next year, if you were wondering). In my opinion, it's never too early to start training for parenthood, so when I receive books like The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting by Bunmi Laditan, I take notes and laugh a lot. First of all, you should check out the Honest Toddler Facebook page, because it's pretty enjoyable. I don't laugh about it as much as an actual parent would because let's be honest, I don't get it yet, not really. I've never been pooped on. Back to the book...
It is a collaborative book on parenting, written from a child's point of view in mind, basically telling you how to live up to their expectations. Toddlers are perpetually misunderstood creatures, and The Honest Toddler is here to clear up the communication barrier between parent and child. There are a couple of pretty amazing old school ideas running around through this book. Like how to leave your kid alone so they can be themselves, and how to understand their behavior, rather than freak out about it. Going grocery shopping? Leave your kid at home! No matter how good natured they are, they do not want to go to the store with you and not be able to pull everything off the shelves. Get a fricken babysitter, for everyone's sake.
At first, I didn't know for sure if I agreed with every strategy in this book, as I am the most stubborn person alive and will have a hard time giving in to my crazy offspring who will probably be exactly like me, or that one daughter of the Teresa New Jersey Housewives lady. But then I got to thinking that this book makes the parent look much less crazy than any other parenting book I've ever read. So there's that.
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