Customer Reviews

Living Simply with Children: A Voluntary Simplicity Guide for Moms, Dads, and Kids Who Want to Reclaim the Bliss of Childhood and the Joy of Parenting

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

 

 

At last! Help for us simple living types with children. It is easy to question your principles when your children feel consigned to peer group hell because they don't wear the latest clothes, live in the "right" neigborhood, have a gameboy, and so on. The "soul-searching" part of the book is helpful in walking kids (and yourself!) through the reasons your family is doing this, and the suggestions in implementing a simpler lifestyle are great too. I loved her "transport pod" theory about why we don't need the biggest, fanciest vehicle around. Other chapters deal with television, peer pressure, money management for kids, education, and holidays. There is an excellent list of resources at the end of each chapter that will have me happily reading and web-surfing for months. What I most liked, though, is that I felt part of a much larger community of people who are trying to live in a way that is healthier, more environmental and saner.

Many of us are fed up with the continual bombardment of advertisers and the materialistic lifestyles we live. We yearn for lives that are less stressful, more meaningful, more fun, more environmentally sustainable, and better for our children. But how do we achieve these laudable goals in a culture stricken by affluenza?

We can begin by reading reading Marie Sherlock's Living Simply with Children, a superb book -- one of the best books I've read all year! Packed with lots of sensible answers to living a nonconsumer life in a world of runaway consumption, it's a treasure chest of vital information. This marvelous book should be required reading for all Americans...although advertisers and corporate America would certainly throw a fit.

The author's insights, experiences, research, and suggestions will inspire you to rethink and reshape your life for the betterment of the bedraggled planet we call home...lest we forget, the only habitable piece of real estate in our solar system. I've found it very useful in reshaping our family life.

In addition to purchasing several more philosophical texts on child-rearing, I bought this book hoping to get some basic ideas to promote simplicity in our family's life. This is a quick-read full of excellent ideas to pare down the influence of consumerism for our families. I plan to utilize a lot of the ideas in the book and to contact several of the resources listed. I give this 4 stars because it is VERY basic, but excellently written.

Men have never been given a decent guide for parenting by any other author until now. Marie Sherlock has boiled down the morass of parenting into a tangible notion that is logical and replicable for even the most "out of touch" father!

Men intrinsically know that many of the frills provided to children do not contribute to any sort of character building. Yet, we do not have the skills to automatically know how to identify another parenting path upon which to proceed. We allow our mothers and wives to direct us because we don't feel we have any basis for what comes down to "common sense."

What the author makes clear is that we are generally raising selfish, narcissistic children who are catered to, transported, bribed and cajoled into some sort of non-negative behavior. An excellent example is the number of children from affluent families who see service to their country as something lower classes undertake. This small, but brave book, finally tells America how life really is and challenges us to rescue ourselves and our children from a life of mediocrity.

I have purchased a number of these books to give to young fathers and mothers. If you are one of the latter or know young parents, put your hands on these books as quickly as you can! This book is the blueprint that will guide you into creating happy responsible adults, who will go out into the world and make the parents proud of the outcome.

Apparently I should have read Your Money or Your Life instead. I was annoyed by the tenth reference in the the first 15 pages. I know it's a bit of an exaggeration but seriously it became ridiculous. In addition, I felt left short by her sampling of families that had "downshifted" She wrote that she was confident that there were families living off the grid ,involved in green building, etc. but she wasn't able to find them. What? She lives in Oregon, how far does one have to look? Lastly,despite all the resources (which were more halpful than the cumulative info in the book)at the end of each chapter the book was underdeveloped and a bit superficial.

Thanks, Marie. What a wonderful book and gentle reminder of the most important things in life -- too many children are over consumers by the time they've even hit double digits. Your book is a welcome voice with helpful information for those of us interested in turning the tide against all of the consumer hype and the noise.

after all, it seems to be quoted multiple times in almost every chapter in this book. No wonder the co-author of YMOYL wrote the introduction! Honestly, this is a solid introduction to simplicity; unfortunately, it is hindered by too many references and quotes from Your Money or Your Life. There must be a better way to get across a point other than simply referencing another book (over and over and over). Amazon states that this book cites 72 other books within its pages -- I believe it.

Wonderfully informative, if a bit too hung up on corporate America and hating of money. It still had some great advice and also some great reference books.

This was a delightful, fast, engaging, inspiring read. If you are looking to simplify your life and get rid of the consumerism, spending and excess and you want to bring in your family to this way of thinking, check out this book. Reading the stories of other parents and how they were adapting to simplier lifestyle was interesting and validating, since many of the tactics cited as "downshifting" we are already doing with our 2-year-old son, like not allowing TV, teaching him to be kind to the earth by using less, and using this lifestyle as a teaching tool.

One note on why I rated it 4 instead of 5 stars, I did find it a bit annoying how often this book cited "Your Money or Your Life," (which I had not read but promptly got from the library afterwards.) It was like a sales pitch for the other book. I recommend reading the latter first, then this book.

I had high hopes for this book, but I was sorely disappointed. The author spoke of her belief system so much that I finally put the book down. As a working mother who finds great fulfillment in working fulltime, I really wanted incite into a simple way of life, not a guilt trip because I do not stay home. She kept talking about why you should live simply (part 1), but I felt like her "how's" (part 2) for implementing a simple life was not at all useful or practical.