Fathering Your School Age Child - by Armin Brott

Subtitled A Dad's Guide to the Wonder Years:  3 to 9

Not subtitled Everything you always wanted to know about your kids but you were too intimidated by your wife to ask.

Ahem.  Not like my husband would ever say that about me. 

So, when I was given this book by the amazing women over at The Parent Bloggers, I was skeptical.  My husband, although I love him very much, is not a reader.  I think he's read two books since we were married.  (Love you, sweetie!) Reading is not his thing.  It is mine. If he was a reader, though, this would be the book for him. 

We've both discussed how he's not a baby person, being intimidated by teeny tinies, and how he's much better with kids once they have able to ambulate and discuss.  He's said that bigger kids are more fun, but we both struggle with understanding the little buggers.  After all, what makes them do the things that they do?  I'll never know. 

I agreed that I'd read this book for him and promised to a) tell him if it was any good b) tell him if there was anything that I thought he should know and c) circle and highlight any areas of interest.  Man, is there a lot of ink throughout my copy of this book.  I really like the fact that it is broken down year by year.  So often, children are grouped together as 3-5 year olds and 6-8, but there is a lot of difference between a 3 year old and a 5 year old.  Each yearly section is further divided into sub chapters, What's going on with your child?, What's going on with you?, You and you child, and You and your partner.  Each subchapter deals with different concerns that could arise during that time.  For instance, in the 8 year old section on You and Your child, fully 3/4 of the section is devoted to computer and other electronic activities.  The author lists various acronyms, used in texting and email and chat rooms.  I like to think I'm pretty savvy, but I didn't know many of them. 

One of the highlighted parts deals withthe concept of "fair".  Brott states:  In most kids minds, fair is a synonym for same.  Younger ones will always complain that the older ones gets more privileges, and the older ones will always complain that the younger ones have fewer obligations.... Karl Marx once said, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."  I'm thinking about painting this on the wall of each bedroom in my house. 

I spent hours of pool time eagerly devouring this book, despite the fact that I am not the target audience.  Probably my favorite section was the Resources, at the back of the book.  Many topics were covered - adoption, discipline, Fathering your Special Needs Child, Sex, Stepfamilies.  Every topic had books, websites and organziations to contact for more information.  There was also an AWESOME additional reading section, with books geared for both kids and parents.

This book was a great read and I'm happy to recommend it to any dad, with kids of any ages.  It's a great primer, and is a book I can see really being well used.

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As usual, I'm giving my copy away .  Leave a comment if you are interested. 

Comments

[Sherry]

My hubby totally needs this. He has been gone with the military for the past two and a half years. When he finally(!) gets home in October, he will be needing all of the help he can get in relating to our 7 year old son.

[Sherry]

Um, since it is just me, do I win?

[Sherry]

Um, since it is just me, do I win?