A Thoughtful Analysis

The cover says it all, though the chapters on the nine myths of parenting flesh things out pretty well.  It's easy for some parents to obsess over every detail of their parenting, worrying that their children will fail in some area or have lifelong problems because of a parent's misstep along the way.  Ironically, for some parents, their embrace of Christianity makes the problem worse instead of better, since now their parenting and their children's lives take on self-consciously cosmic dimensions.  It ought to be precisely the opposite case, of course.  Jesus paid the penalty for our poor parenting just as much as our other sins.  We are free to raise our children with love and the joy of the gospel.  But that's easy to say and hard to remember.

On the other hand, some parents, Christian and otherwise, may tend to fall off the other side of the fence and fail to "parent" enough.  I probably lean in this direction.  It's 2:30 in the afternoon and my youngest is still in her pajamas.  I did feed them, at least, but nothing particularly healthy.  It wouldn't matter, as they wouldn't eat anything particularly healthy, anyway.  And I don't really feel guilty about any of this.  So I endorse this book, but perhaps personally I need a book pushing me in the other direction!