This month’s book club selection is No Regrets Parenting: Turning Long Days and Short Years into Cherished Moments with Your Kids by Harley Rotbart, MD.
I think a fair bit about regrets these days, having a baby to remind me of all the things I’d do differently if I could start over with the Kid. Five years has given me time to make some mistakes, but it isn’t the big things that I regret. I don’t regret one bit that vacation we didn’t take. I regret the little things that pile up.
My kid is very deliberate in what she does and how she gets from one activity to the next. There is no hurrying her. As her parents, we learned this a long time ago. Knowing it and never hurrying her are two different things, though. That’s my regret – that in the moments where there truly isn’t any need, I rush her and I do it for no good reason other than my own hurry.
But the other end of parenting is what the Kid remembers. She talks about the sprinkles on her birthday cupcakes and the time we made cookies. There’s sure something in the moments that matters, that may be all that matters.
I’m looking forward to this book, to hearing some ideas about how to get into the moments and out of my head where I’m fretting about school or the mess or the budget. Please join us in reading:
If you’d like to participate in the book club, this is how it will work:
1. Fill out the form below to sign up.
2. Pick up a copy of “No Regrets Parenting” Don’t forget to see if your local library has it!
3. On July 10th we’ll send around an email to all of the participants asking you to send in a question or discussion topic, anything at all you’d like to talk about with the rest of the book club. You don’t have to send a question, but the more people who do, the more jumping-off points we’ll have to facilitate a discussion.
4. The question and topic list will be posted on July 11th. Then, write a post about No Regrets Parenting on your blog – your thoughts, issues you had with the book, new ideas you got, things that surprised you, anything at all. Your post is due at midnight, July 17th.
5. July 18th we’ll post the list and we’ll have some discussion and share our thoughts!
Important dates:
- ASAP – buy the book and sign up for book club
- July 10th– submit your questions and/or discussion points
- July 11th – complete list of questions will posted
- July 17th – post due to be submitted for the listing
- July 18th– complete list of participating blogs will be posted on PAIL’s main page
*****
Ms. Future PharmD is a student pharmacist who blogs over at Mom PharmD, where she’s been talking about life-work balance and secondary infertility since the fall of 2011. She is the proud parent of the Kid and Little Monster, ages 5 years and a few months respectively.
*****
Share. Visit. Read. Comment. Support.
Filed under: book club
