Book Recommendation:

“Growing Up Again: Parenting Ourselves, Parenting Our Children.“

by Jean Illsley Clarke and Connie Dawson

Meta

• Who would benefit from reading this book?

  Current or would-be parents.

• What could you get out of this book?

  A systematic way of looking at parent child interactions, challenges for you to grow personally, and promptings for you to process through your upbringing. 

• How long to read?

  If you were to read it straight through, it would probably only take you one week or two. I took a couple of years. I read a chapter or two and then move on to other books and hobbies for a while, then revisit. Not because the book was dull, because with not having kids yet I was reading it more for the personal introspection.

   

• Pages & Highlights:

  310 p. and 23 highlights

• Structure: 

  The authors parsed the book into eight sections. Sections 1 — 3 explain their system of viewing parenting, 4 — 5 overindulgence and denial, 6 prenatal and birth experience, 7 growing up again and again, 8 adoption.

• Thesis:

  To parent our children well we need to fill in the gaps left by our upbringing.

How Do I Parent Well? 

I do not have children. I want to have children, but I expect them to still be a number of years removed. Thinking about being a parent even with that buffer of time is one of the most sobering contemplations.

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