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A review by kymme
Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting by Myla Kabat-Zinn, Jon Kabat-Zinn
3.0
I'm not actually done reading this book, but I'm not reading it all at once, either, so to keep it from forever languishing on the "currently-reading" shelf, I'll write about the first third or so.
I like the concept of this book, that one can and should bring a sense of calm and reflection to parenting situations, and that if you pay attention to yourself as you interact with your child, instead of simply reacting (to, say, an entire photo album of pre-digital beloved pictures being spread by your toddler on the not-exactly-clean-or-dry kitchen floor in the 30 seconds it took you to take a pot off the stove and dump the pasta into a colander, not that I have any personal experience to draw on!), both you and the child will benefit. It's a lovely sentiment, which I mean sincerely. [Nice, deep breath here.]
The book is only okay, though, because the writing is somewhat odd--it's a husband-wife team, and they take turns writing sections, which they indicate by placing their initials after "I." Despite my fondness for initials in general, I find this incredibly distracting and annoying in the middle of a sentence (which gives me an opportunity to work on mindfulness, I suppose). The MLA devotee in me wants to gently suggest the "citation" go at the end of the sentence, or at least at the end of a phrase, thankyouverymuch...
So I might not finish it, but it's not bad at the content level.
I like the concept of this book, that one can and should bring a sense of calm and reflection to parenting situations, and that if you pay attention to yourself as you interact with your child, instead of simply reacting (to, say, an entire photo album of pre-digital beloved pictures being spread by your toddler on the not-exactly-clean-or-dry kitchen floor in the 30 seconds it took you to take a pot off the stove and dump the pasta into a colander, not that I have any personal experience to draw on!), both you and the child will benefit. It's a lovely sentiment, which I mean sincerely. [Nice, deep breath here.]
The book is only okay, though, because the writing is somewhat odd--it's a husband-wife team, and they take turns writing sections, which they indicate by placing their initials after "I." Despite my fondness for initials in general, I find this incredibly distracting and annoying in the middle of a sentence (which gives me an opportunity to work on mindfulness, I suppose). The MLA devotee in me wants to gently suggest the "citation" go at the end of the sentence, or at least at the end of a phrase, thankyouverymuch...
So I might not finish it, but it's not bad at the content level.