Look up the word ‘parenting’ on Amazon and expect to wade through some 61,559 responses. ‘Pregnancy’ is slightly more manageable at 25,678.
First-time couples about to embark on the long haul of raising children are often understandably eager to read up on what they’re in for. But with so many books out there, where do you start? Well, probably not here. There’s the ‘tiger mother’ approach currently doing the rounds recently touched on here at the Dailies and then there’s the Philip Larkin approach (Oliver James turned it into an entire pop psychology), whose effect is most likely to be prophylactic.
There are heaps of great blogs on parenting too, including Planning With Kids and Bad Mummy. But on pregnancy? Here’s a freshly-minted reading guide to get you started. It’s author, Edan Lupicki, is expecting and writes on pregnancy with insight: “A lot of childbirthing books focus on what you can do, what you must do, etc. as though it all depended on your efforts and will. What bothers me about that is that it can turn into disappointment and blame, if things don’t go as planned.”
The Children’s Book Festival is being held at the Wheeler Centre and the State Library of Victoria on Sunday 3 April from 10am to 4pm for kids who love books and their parents (regardless of their parenting philosophy).