Preschool Confidential [Hardcover]

Sandi Kahn Shelton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2001

So you thought you'd made it past the difficult part: the midnight feedings, the colic, the breast pumps, the endless diaper changings. Just when you thought you'd reached the blissful part of parenthood...here come the toddler/preschool years! Only Sandi Kahn Shelton could deliver such a dead-on, hilarious, true-ringing look at the walking, talking, crazy years. In Preschool Confidential, she explored such universal occurrences as:

--Dealing with the mutiny in the checkout line (aka: begging or bribing?).
--Presenting scientific proof that toddlers ask 437 questions per day.
--Unveiling the four "answers" that any parent can recycle to respond to any toddler's question.
--Ranking tantrums on a Richter scale.
--Understanding day-care romances.
--Ducking the sex questions every kid is destined to ask (at the most inopportune moments).
--Dissecting the anatomy of a birthday party (or how to control a group of four-year-olds without ropes or sedatives).
--Coping when the four food groups are Cheerios, macaroni and chesse, Jell-O, and lollipops.
--Cooking purple mashed potatoes, and emergency tactics to stave off a hunger strike.
--And much more!

Preschool Confidential will have you howling at the apt, accurate, and painfully honest look at the preschool years. It will also have you thinking, I thought only my child did that!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Trust us, oh ye parents of preschoolers: find the time to read this book! Absurdly entertaining and horrifically accurate, Preschool Confidential captures the mind-boggling hysteria of life with your own batch of little rascals. Bringing up real-life topics such as "The True Story of the Babysitter" and "The Birthday Party," humorist Sandi Kahn Shelton (Sleeping Through the Night and Other Lies) reminds us all that no one has all the answers, it's always better to laugh, and your child isn't the only one planning on growing up to be a kitty.

Shelton's book is perfect to read when you're having a bad day. She understands why moms end up saying things like "If you don't stop jumping on the kitchen counter with Barbie's leg in your hand, you're going to put out your eye and then I won't take you to the circus." It's also perfect to read on your good days, when you're having a laugh about the mysterious cult of the noodle that children enter upon their third birthday. Shelton also manages to add a useful perspective about tricky subjects like "explaining about the bad guys without scaring everyone to death," and why mom is bellybutton lint while the teacher is a goddess.

Best of all, you'll remember life before minivans, before you had toilet paper stockpiled behind the couch--back when you took uninterrupted conversations for granted and went to the gym to feel good, not to lose those post-pregnancy pounds. Being a mom is important, but so is being a person, and Shelton's warmth and humor are sure to help you find your self and your sanity hiding underneath all those sticky layers of peanut butter. --Jill Lightner

From Library Journal

Most parents of preschoolers are often too exhausted to do much more than just get through the day. Child-rearing problems perpetually loom on the horizon, and parents hope they are doing everything "right." Along comes Shelton, a mother of three and a columnist for Working Mother magazine, with witty, hilarious observations on every aspect of what to expect from this formidable and challenging little population. Her laugh-out-loud comments and astute remarks will help lighten any mother's load and keep things in perspective. She is not afraid to admit that she has never really known how to get kids to go to bed, even if she does all of the things that you're supposed to. This is a refreshing look at child rearing, written in short sections that can be read in five to ten minutes a perfect fit for a mother's schedule. Worthwhile for any parenting shelf and for public libraries. Annette V. Janes, Hamilton P.L., MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (May 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031225458X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312254582
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, where I wrote my first book of fiction (a story about a king who was tired) when I was five years old and sold it to the neighbors so I could get money for ice cream. Since then, I've been a newspaper reporter, a columnist for Working Mother magazine, a free-lance writer, the author of three non-fiction humor books about parenting--and now, at last, as the author of two novels, I'm happy to be back to my fiction roots. Someday perhaps I'll do an update on the tired king. Meanwhile, I'm working on a new book, a love story, in between letting my golden retriever in and out of the house every couple of minutes or so.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just How Funny Your Kids Really Are, June 7, 2001

By 

Sandra Connolly (Guilford, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preschool Confidential (Hardcover)

My husband and I are reading this book out loud to each other each night after we tuck our kids in bed. We usually end up laughing so hard we almost fall off of the couch. It's good medicine, that book. Sandi takes situations that you may never have thought of as being funny and opens your eyes to just how hilarious it all really is. The fact that she's been through the preschool stage three times herself gives her vast experience to draw from and write about.

Mostly, I feel like I am reading a comic strip about our own family life because the things she describes are the very things we experience over and over again and never even thought to ask anybody about. It does wonders for my attitude.

I think anyone who is in the process of raising a preschooler NEEDS to read this book. It's like the glass of wine at the end of the day, and perspective for the days to come.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, June 19, 2002

By 

C. Jackson (Tulsa, ok United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Preschool Confidential (Hardcover)

What a funny funny look at being the mother of a three year old. She has done a great job capturing the phases and stages that leark in dark corners just when you think the terrible twos are over! Although I think Shelton is a little down on Motherhood sometimes the book is non-the-less a great read. Easy to pick up and put down, with some out loud laughing involved. It would make a great gift for the three year old birthday boy or girl's mom!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't even need your own kids to love this book!, June 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Preschool Confidential (Hardcover)

This book entertained me non-stop through an 800-mile train-and-bus trip, and I don't even have children. I really couldn't put it down. It's as funny as Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and as engagingly written. Someone should make a TV series from it, or a movie. This one's a winner.