Lenore Skenazy
Founder of Free Range Kids, now President of Let Grow, the non-profit making it easy, normal and legal to give our kids some independence. @LetGrowOrg
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Lenore Skenazy
“Act Natural is an amazing history book. But instead of, say, looking back at all the scientific things people once believed (earth flat, witches cast spells, "humors" cause disease), it looks at the beliefs about what makes for a good parent. There were some wild beliefs! https://t.co/eZTWbrz5aX” (from X)
Jennifer Traig(you?)
From a distinctive, inimitable voice, a wickedly funny and fascinating romp through the strange and often contradictory history of Western parenting Why do we read our kids fairy tales about homicidal stepparents? How did helicopter parenting develop if it used to be perfectly socially acceptable to abandon your children? Why do we encourage our babies to crawl if crawling won’t help them learn to walk? These are just some of the questions that came to Jennifer Traig when—exhausted, frazzled, and at sea after the birth of her two children—she began to interrogate the traditional parenting advice she’d been conditioned to accept at face value. The result is Act Natural, hilarious and deft dissection of the history of Western parenting, written with the signature biting wit and deep insights Traig has become known for. Moving from ancient Rome to Puritan New England to the Dr. Spock craze of mid-century America, Traig cheerfully explores historic and present-day parenting techniques ranging from the misguided, to the nonsensical, to the truly horrifying. Be it childbirth, breastfeeding, or the ways in which we teach children how to sleep, walk, eat, and talk, she leaves no stone unturned in her quest for answers: Have our techniques actually evolved into something better? Or are we still just scrambling in the dark?