Customer Reviews

How to Traumatize Your Children (Self-Hurt)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a hoot! Get it for your friends who are about to have kids, already have kids, or who are thinking about having kids! This book is written very straight -- the funny part is that all the horrible "advice" it gives you about how to go about traumatizing your kids is actually representative of what I see people doing to their children every day!(Of course, I never did ANY of this stuff to my three kids...uh...well...maybe a little...uhhh, chapter 4 and chapter 6!) This is part of a set of six books (that I saw together in another store) and all the titles are funny - How to get fat, How to drive like a maniac, etc. They make a great gift and look very cute lined up on a shelf -- the titles make people look at them twice! I recommend it for a good laugh and as a clever, surprising gift. Add it to a baby shower gift!

In addition to being side-splittingly funny in places, this book is such a brilliant depiction of negative parenting, it's actually quite enlightening. They're not talking about obviously abusive characteristics; rather they shed excruciating light on more subtle and common contemporary parenting "styles" with chapter headings such as "Exerting Control: Your Child, Your Property," "It's all about YOU: Narcissistic Parenting," "Don't quit your day job: The convenience of neglect," or "Whatever they want: Indulgence begets entititlement." Wish I'd read this years ago. It might have helped spare my kids and me some pain.

I really thought that Traumatizing your children came naturally, but maybe for all those new age parents it's not so natural. It's a good thing this book is available to teach them how to terrorize their own offspring. My life wouldn't be the same without my parents having traumatized me.

As per the Cinematic references, my mother and I watched Mommie Dearest together when I was a young tot...wondering now if it was just so I would appreciate her that much more.

I found this book too tiresome to finish, however I can appreciate its gallows style humor would be much much funnier if I currently had a teenager in the house who was telling me in great detail about how I have ruined their life. Having been there in the not too recent past, I believe I would have laughed hysterically then, interspersed with fits of crying and banging my head against the wall. If you are in the throws of parenting despair, this just might bring a little needed laughter into your life. If not, I think you can safely pass on this one.

After having bought my brother and SIL a ton of newborn clothes, books, toys etc., I just had to get this book to add a little levity to whole baby shower/baby preparation thing. They had a really good laugh at it. I also read through it and thought it was quite amusing.