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giantarms's review
4.0
Being of an age wherein I possess the twin desires to be a carefree adult rolling in money and a vigorous pincher of baby cheeks, I thought this book would be something I could identify with. This man has decided he will have children while retaining his "cool" personhood. Naturally this is not as simple as he thinks. Which was, at first, upsetting. Then I remembered that I'm not that cool to begin with and I calmed down and enjoyed reading this neurotic man's journey into Responsible Adulthood, Fatherhood Level 2.
While the effort Pollack and his wife put into feeding, educating, and molding the aesthetic tastes of their youngster was exhausting, these were the actions of people with pre-conceived notions of what is good and healthy for a child. What made me squirm, of course, was that they were explicitly trying to avoid the norms of modern American child-rearing at the same time. It all comes out as a wash in the end and they end up like every parent since the dawn of time: They Do The Best They Can. For an underachiever such as myself, this is comforting.
Bonus points! While reading the chapter on the delivery of the baby, my womb actually, physically, ached. Truly, a gut-wrenching account and a lesson on trying to plan things in an uncertain world.
While the effort Pollack and his wife put into feeding, educating, and molding the aesthetic tastes of their youngster was exhausting, these were the actions of people with pre-conceived notions of what is good and healthy for a child. What made me squirm, of course, was that they were explicitly trying to avoid the norms of modern American child-rearing at the same time. It all comes out as a wash in the end and they end up like every parent since the dawn of time: They Do The Best They Can. For an underachiever such as myself, this is comforting.
Bonus points! While reading the chapter on the delivery of the baby, my womb actually, physically, ached. Truly, a gut-wrenching account and a lesson on trying to plan things in an uncertain world.
lanikei's review
2.0
Alright, I only paid $5 for this book, and that was about how much I should have spent on it.
The book was mildly entertaining, but suffered from exactly what it was advertised to be... true stories of a hipster dad and his hipster wife raising a kid. It is full of cute stories of their growing son, and the trials and tribulations of being a parent in a neighborhood 'in transistion' with the problems that go along with parenting, not having real jobs, and not managing money well.
It's not that I felt these guys were terrible parents, but they certainly did some things that I thought were rather silly. Mostly it was just a book about people I wouldn't like very much as people - they are the hipster kids I make fun of, and carry that into their child-rearing techniques.
But the end is what got me. Suddenly it all became clear. This was not a book about a dad raising his son, or parents trying to find their way in the tricky obstacle-laden course that is being self-employed snobs that can't make their house payments. This book was a chance to justify the author's parenting.
To summarize - the son is a biter as a toddler and gets kicked out of preschool, the author decides to write an article (for Salon.com maybe?) about the situation and how terrible it is, The Internet Attacks, wife feels like a terrible mother and cries. Husband decides to write book so that people won't think they are terrible people.
After that chapter that seemed to explain all the rest... I was done. Fortunately I was pretty much done with the book anyway - they only had one more financially stupid decision left to make, and they lived happily ever after.
To be fair, I did enjoy some parts of the book. I really respected the wife and her approach to pregnancy and the birthing process, and the chapter about Elijah's birth was both interesting and painful to read. And the kid's cute in that way that only 2 year olds at a distance can be. Someone who can relate to the stories and the struggles may enjoy this more than I did, and people with a higher hipster tolerance may not get as easily irritate by the author.
The book was mildly entertaining, but suffered from exactly what it was advertised to be... true stories of a hipster dad and his hipster wife raising a kid. It is full of cute stories of their growing son, and the trials and tribulations of being a parent in a neighborhood 'in transistion' with the problems that go along with parenting, not having real jobs, and not managing money well.
It's not that I felt these guys were terrible parents, but they certainly did some things that I thought were rather silly. Mostly it was just a book about people I wouldn't like very much as people - they are the hipster kids I make fun of, and carry that into their child-rearing techniques.
But the end is what got me. Suddenly it all became clear. This was not a book about a dad raising his son, or parents trying to find their way in the tricky obstacle-laden course that is being self-employed snobs that can't make their house payments. This book was a chance to justify the author's parenting.
To summarize - the son is a biter as a toddler and gets kicked out of preschool, the author decides to write an article (for Salon.com maybe?) about the situation and how terrible it is, The Internet Attacks, wife feels like a terrible mother and cries. Husband decides to write book so that people won't think they are terrible people.
After that chapter that seemed to explain all the rest... I was done. Fortunately I was pretty much done with the book anyway - they only had one more financially stupid decision left to make, and they lived happily ever after.
To be fair, I did enjoy some parts of the book. I really respected the wife and her approach to pregnancy and the birthing process, and the chapter about Elijah's birth was both interesting and painful to read. And the kid's cute in that way that only 2 year olds at a distance can be. Someone who can relate to the stories and the struggles may enjoy this more than I did, and people with a higher hipster tolerance may not get as easily irritate by the author.
plaidbrarian's review
3.0
Not a bad book, but I only got maybe 50 to 75 pages in and didn't feel the need to go any further. In the end, I decided that since I'm in the midst of raising a small child, I didn't want to read about someone else doing the same. I don't want anyone else's ideas on the subject to unknowingly affect my own (if I go seeking advice, that's one thing, but passively taking it in bothers me somehow), and I generally don't like to read about the exact same things I'm doing in my day-to-day life, anyway. Of course, he's a published author/dad, and I'm a library-shlub-without-an-MLIS/dad, so you could make a convincing argument that he's the one actually doing it correctly, but that's not important right now.
jescatling's review
4.0
Really fun read. Still not planning on kids myself, but I loved Neal Pollack's stories of getting his 2 yr old kid into rock n roll, rebelling against the Little Gym and getting pissed that the nursery school gives the students Country Time lemonade when they feed him mostly organic food at home. It made me want to make a mix CD for all my friends' kids.
marisamb's review
2.0
On one hand, it's an interesting discourse on living in Chicago AND Austin, interfaith marriage, and parenthood.
On the other, Neal Pollack wrote it.
On the other, Neal Pollack wrote it.
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