As a parent, I want the best for my son. I’m sure it’s a feeling I share with many, many other parents. I can remember bringing my son home from the hospital and wondering if I was a “good enough” mom when it came to choosing how to feed him (breast or bottle?) and I questioned my decisions an awful lot. Perhaps it was first time mom jitters, but I wanted to appear that I had it all together, even though our lives had changed drastically, but for the better, of course.
As my son grows, those thoughts turn to different choices according to different seasons of our life. Should we make him play sports? Is he eating healthy enough? Am I still a good enough mom, even though we don’t play sports and I work out of the home? Thankfully, these thoughts don’t consume me, but I see parents I know making themselves almost crazy with chauffeuring to after-school sports and activities and trying to be the perfect parent. While it’s admirable to strive to be a great parent, are we doing a disservice to ourselves and our families trying to keep up with an impossible ideal that we think equals happiness?
If so, why have kids?
This is the thought-provoking question posed by Jessica Valenti, author of Why Have Kids? A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness. Released this month, Valenti’s book explores problems with modern parenting and offers solutions to social and political issues that can bring back the joy to parenting instead of striving to live up to an impossible ideal that conflicts with the reality of parenting, which leaves everyone involved feeling disappointed and miserable.
BUY IT NOW
WHY HAVE KIDS? A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness
by Jessica Valenti
On Sale: September 4, 2012· Amazon/New Harvest· 208 pages
$23.00 Hardcover · ISBN: 978-0-8050-9412-1
$9.99 Digital List Price· ASIN: B008L4KT6W
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Valenti is the author of three previous books, including The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. She is also the founder of Feministing.com, which the Columbia Journalism Review called “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Jessica – called one of the top 100 inspiring women in the world by the Guardian – speaks at universities and organizations in the U.S. and abroad about feminism, activism, and media. She lives with her family in Boston, but remains a New Yorker at heart. Follow Jessica on Twitter @jessicavalenti
This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a copy of Why Have Kids? and compensation for my time investment and work on this campaign.