Reader's Resource - Raising Your Spirited Child

With the advent of the dreaded twos - which, I'm told are dwarfed by the threes - I found myself in need of a little advice. Between a two year-old (nearly), a newborn, and graduate school I am not feeling particularly creative when it comes to discipline or explanations or the ability to answer the same question for the seventieth time in a row. I am feeling a bit more centered, a bit more grateful and more able to understand my dear daughter. Knowing that I'm not alone helped.

"Raising Your Spirited Child" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (I don't get any kickbacks) felt like something I could have written... well, the descriptions of a "spirited child," not the advice. Simply this book may allow you to see your child in a new way, a more positive one. By changing the words used to describe the traditionally "strong-willed" child, I was granted the ability to accept, and appreciate my wonderful daughter's unique, spirited, vivacious personality.

I should note that I found the book a bit light on actual advice. However, I found it to be incredibly valuable as a parenting resource because of the attitude it encourages you to adopt concerning a child that might require a bit more effort at times.

I loved how she describes how a parent might first learn that they have a spirited child. Perhaps it was while you were still pregnant and those kicks felt harder than what other women described or what you experienced with other pregnancies. Or maybe it was when your cousin had the "good baby" at the family reunion.

My daughter is my first so I initially thought that babies were all "demanding" or as Dr. Sears says "high needs" or "holding high standards." I can now appreciate and love that she has always known what she wants and won't back down from trying to get it.

If you're in search of a new outlook or just a few words of encouragement as you try to move forward as a gentle parent, this might be a good match.

DFW

So, my dear husband had some sad news for me this morning (actually he told me when I was asleep last night and I apparently replied but just-in-case he told me again this morning). David Foster Wallace is gone. We both feel as if we lost someone we know. What a shame to lose such a talented writer long before his time. So many literary greats have blinked out over the last few years. And with the snuffing-out of each one, we feel a little more alone in this world. We lose a voice which rose above the cacophony to describe our situation, to allow us to understand a bit of our own existence. I guess I want to say "Thank You" to all of them - DFW, Vonnegut, George Plimpton, and Hunter S. Thompson - off the top of my head. You are sorely missed.

I keep hoping it's all a ruse.

Check out his
commencement speech for Kenyon College 2005.

Think on it.