Cute, funny parenting book. Must take as tongue in cheek. My favorite part was the suggestion that for your children to do well on school projects you must buy lots of shoes, because most projects require the boxes! The more expensive the shoe, the higher quality the box!

I could not keep from laughing as I read this book. The insightful parenting advice can pertain to those who already have children, have had children or plan on having them. Although humorous, the tips are quite practical. My sister has a two-year-old son, and I plan on buying this for her for Christmas. It’s a definite must-read book!

This is a very refreshing book!! I definitely recommend this one to anyone who needs a tongue-in-cheek account of parenting! It definitely tells moms (and dads) to take back their lives ...

I am Busymom under Amazon ~~ and there's a review already up there for this book. I just love this book and would recommend it to everyone who needs a dose of humor in their day!

i got this for a shower gift (thanks, lisa!) from a fellow parenter. this book is truly hilarious. it got me through some hard times, which some people call labor & delivery but i all the "Will somebody open a window so I can jump out?" period.

What a crazy little book. The mom here recommends a 1950's-60's laissez faire parenting style where children are seen and not heard, and learn to play quietly by themselves, not bothering the grown-ups during cocktail hour. It's written with tongue-firmly-in-cheek, and the author ends on an upbeat message reminding parents that those years with little ones fly by all too fast. She recommends keeping one's social life firmly intact, whilst teaching your children from toddlers on up not to be brats.

The author may have watched one too many episodes of Mad Men - the book is interspersed with "vintage" illustrations of children looking like paper doll cut-outs and, of course, the requisite cocktail recipes to ensure that all runs smoothly in her household.

With a less arch tone and fewer boozy "jokes" this could have been a great counter-argument to high-stress, attachment parenting. As it was, the sarcasm fell a little bit flat.

A hilarious, tongue-in-cheek look at parenting. I wish the parents of my students would read this. I have seen a shift in parenting in my 12+ years of teaching and this book addresses many of my concerns. It's quick, witty and highly recommended for parents, soon-to-be parents and just-in-the-planning-stages.

Memorable quotes:

Intro, p. 2 Let us be perfectly frank. You were here first. You are sharing your house with them, your food, your time, your books.......We have made concession after concession, until it appears that well-educated, otherwise intelligent adults have abdicated their rightful place in the world, and the littlest inmates have taken over the asylum.

Intro, p. 5 Some parents believe that their offspring are channeling the very angels, and who can blame them, as little Josefina and young Mylar are such dolls? Please, I encourage you to keep this information to yourself. Your darling Buster may wear a golden halo, and I know the temptation is great to point it out to friends and strangers alike, but you must not. Just as it would be bad form to discuss one's personal savior at a dinner party full of atheists, it would be wise to assume that even many fellow parents will stare with frozen smiles when the serene first-timer says in that smug, knowing way, "Having Haley has just changed my life."

Chapter 1, p. 5 Learn to say no to your children while they are still young and somewhat malleable, and it will be like money in the bank when they reach those really unbearable hormone-laden years.

Chapter 6, p. 3 (on videoing every event of your child's life) But for whom are you really doing this? Who will be the beneficiary of this minutely recorded history? You are denying yourself experiencing the moment, because you think your little Simba will be deprived sometime in the future.

Chapter 19, p. 1 As much as we must encourage our children's interests and efforts, as much as we should praise them when they work hard and do well, we do not need to continually assure our wee ones that they are brilliant and can do no wrong, especially when they engage in an activity at which they are mediocre, at best. It is not our job to protect our children from every little slight and hurt and bad feeling.

Chapter 19, p. 4-5 What is winning without a million failures? Why have we made it so easy for children to succeed at everything, constantly lowering the bar so that their mere presence merits a gold statuette? If a child never accepts, or even embraces, his failures, what a blow it will be when one day he is teased, or rejected, or experiences one of the many failures that are simply part of the childhood itinerary.

Perhaps the most egregious example of this kind of coddling is the bowling bumper. This horrifying invention, which has begun to pop up at every bowling alley birthday party, keeps your child's bowling ball from ever going into the gutters. Children bowling with bumpers never truly understand the heartbreak of a gutter ball. They also never really learn how to bowl, or discover the excitement of making a real strike.

Chapter 20, p. 4 It is actually possible for your youngster to have a happy childhood without filling every spare moment with mandatory supervised activities.

Epilogue p.3-4 Do not make your child your only hobby or you will end up waiting by the telephone in a cheery room covered in brittle, yellowed crayon drawings, regaling those few friends that are left with stale anecdotes about your youngster's accomplishments.

I very much enjoyed this cheeky little book. Told in a tongue-and-cheek style, infused with some real advice, it's a humorous reminder that we all need to have a life outside our kids who will one day (sooner than we might hope or expect) have lives of their own. Remember when we used to entertain ourselves and the immense imaginations we cultivated as a result? I often fear I'm overly entertaining my only-child in hopes of providing him with plenty of enriching opportunities. The author reminds us that even "boredom" is necessary for a developing mind.

So here's to my dear friend, Helga, who can turn even a "playdate" into a lovely adult happy hour. My next "enriching" lesson for my dear toddler who always wants to help ("I help!") will be to teach him the fine art of a perfectly chilled glass ("hot vs cold"), how to swirl the vermouth just so ("fine motor skill development"), how to spear a toothpick with olives ("hand eye-coordination and counting skills--'I'll take 2 olives, please'"), and how to pour ice-cold vodka with out spilling a drop ("domestic skills"). Cheers!

This is a super quick read, I read it in one day while I was pregnant and loved loved loved it. However, this book is not only for parents or soon to be parents, lots of my childless friends have read it and found it's humorous and witty commentary on the current status of child raising quite interesting and spot on.

Absolutely hysterical. While most of the book is obviously tongue-in-cheek, there are important messages and definitely made me feel better about being a regular 'ol mom (as opposed to the SuperMom we all aspire to be). Chapters include "Screaming: Is It Necessary", "Saying No to Your Child: It's a Kick!" and "Bedtime: Is Five-Thirty Too Early?"

Sigh. What a crappy time-waster of a book. I have no problem with books that poke fun at motherhood and raising kids (I quite liked I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood). But the author of this comes across as one of those people that causes me to scratch my head and think, "Uh, why did you ever have kids if you dislike them so much?"

She picks some strange topics to have issues with, such as childproofing. She laments going to someone's house for dinner and finding that the toilet seat is childproofed, and she wonders why the people can't just tell their children to stay out of the toilet water. Ooooooooh, so THAT'S what I should do - just tell my newly-mobile 10 month old that playing in the the toilet water and throwing things into it isn't acceptable. Whyever didn't I think of that before?! *face-->palm*

I was also annoyed at her outlook on other parents. She comes across as one of those parents who spends most of her time judging other parents. She says that she hates when new parents say they've "learned so much" from their new baby, and says, "Like what? How to crap your pants?" I've learned a lot from my young child, both about myself and about the world. Maybe that's a bit more philosophical than the author was thinking, but I guess that's my point: she's so flippant about everything related to child-rearing that it seems she takes no pleasure in it whatsoever.

I'm still angry at having wasted an hour of my life reading this.

This was hysterical, but I would try to get it used or from the library. The book wasn't as long as I thought it would be for the price. I really enjoyed the chapter entitled "Little-League, Ballet, and Karate: your child's 80 hour work week".

Fabulous, entertaining book. This is not one to add to the "useful parenting books" shelf, but there are still gems of wisdom. The book validated a lot of my parenting style and allowed me to be more light-hearted in my approach to my kids. I laughed out loud several times and thoroughly enjoyed reading this. It's going in a future baby shower gift!