While Anxious Parents is not a how-to parenting book, it is very useful for a parent to read as a primer to parenting books. I wish I had read this book before reading over 20 different kinds of parenting books before and after the birth of my first child. While I believe that this book could really use better editing (it is written by a historian, after all), it is a good read for new and expectant parents as that grain of salt that is much needed before embarking absorbing on other parenting books.
As a typical Type A, I like to plunge myself into any subject and research the facts, and I treated parenting much the same way. I didn’t have much resource in terms of family, so I decided to approach it like any subject I learned in school — by reading a lot. The problem with parenting book is that the majority of them are quite condescending in tone, and I can almost picture the author wagging their finger as they tell you how to do things their way. The other problem with parenting books is that you might do everything you say and your child may not do as they described your child should do… and then you would be tearing out your hair wondering WHY?? You might even think that there is something wrong with your baby and worry needlessly, as parents tend to do.
Anxious Parents is a book that chronicles how parenting changes over time and creates anxiety in parents. It really helps to put all that expert advice in perspective.
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