14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Help Your Children Get Ready for the Major Leagues of Life, October 23, 2000
This excellent book is that greatest of all rarities, a book for fathers about how to parent written in language most fathers can easily understand! Wow!!
The key message: Put your children first, and be there to build a life with them and for them.
I highly recommend this book to prospective fathers who want to start getting ready, to practicing fathers who want to improve, and to fathers who know how to do better than they are performing now and want to be reinspired. Moms and wives: This is a great gift book for you to give to future and current dads.
Baseball is the metaphor used here for fathering, and it works well. The book looks at "how in fathering as in baseball you have to work on fundamentals, develop good habits, avoid errors, work on your control, and always keep in mind you can't win them all." "'Covering Home' is part spring training, part team building, and part clinic." As in baseball, for fathers "knowing when to cover home is essential."
One of the parts you will relate well to comes in the introduction when Mr. Petrash talks about remembering playing catch with his dad after work, and then doing the same with his own children (including his daughter). I could feel the hot, humid stickiness of heavy air again just before the street lights came on and the chill began, just to think about those days. Ah . . . what wonderful memories baseball brings of time with fathers and children!
Mr. Petrash knows what he is talking about, having been a single parent of 2 sons and a daughter after a divorce, combined with his day job as a teacher.
The book has nine lessons, just like the number of innings in a regulation game. He also has some extra inning advice if it goes longer.
Lesson 1: "If You Want the Season of a Lifetime, Prepare for It" You should focus on "active participation, emotional involvement and thoughtful awareness."
Lesson 2: "Understand the Pace of the Game and Manage Accordingly." To nature an "active, emotional and thoughtful child" you have to be a good example worthy of imitation, set up and be there for special events with your children, and respect your child's thinking while providing emotional support and affirmation.
Lesson 3: "To Be an All-Star, Make the Highlight Film (and Avoid the Blooper Reel)" This is as simple as working on building positive, rather than negative, memories for your child of your time together.
Lesson 4: "Good Habits Last All Season Long, So Establish Them Early and Practice Them Often" Your child will benefit from positive routines built around the evening meal, bedtime, and other low-key activities to help establish self-discipline.
Lesson 5: "Work Both Sides of the Plate" Complement, don't compete, with your wife's approach and insights.
Lesson 6: "If You Have a Shallow Bench, Keep Your Game Simple" If you are a single dad, be calm and move on.
Lesson 7: "Develop Well-Rounded Players" This is simply helping your children improve themselves in many different dimensions.
Lesson 8: "Remember, You Can't Win Them All" The author reminds us that "fathers often take the blame." We should "approach our shortcomings both as pragmatists and as idealists."
Lesson 9: "Start a League of Your Own" Mr. Petrash encourages you to start your own group of fathers to talk over your experiences, and gives you ideas for how to get started. When you are done, he says, "I hope that 'Covering Home' has enthused you about the prospects of fathering."
Extra Innings: Your children still need you after they are grown. Be there for them.
After you have finished this book, I suggest that you add your own lessons for those first nine innings. In fact, you could add innings for your own rules and ideas. If your father is still alive, discuss this book and your ideas with him. I also encourage you to have the same talk with your grandfathers if either or both are alive. Then, do the same with your mother and your grandmothers. At that point, you should be well primed to talk to your wife about how this co-managing should be shared.
Put it right over the plate where your kids can take a good swing at life!
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