Customer Reviews

Three-Martini Family Vacation: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Three-Martini Playdate has become a standard baby-shower gift from our family, and this sequel is even more fun. Please note, Mellor's delightfully acid wit is strictly for grownups; the narrow-minded, the self-infatuated and the judgmental just won't get it. But if you are ready to let your hair down with a frankly hilarious fellow-parent, this is the book for you. The real bonus is that Mellor's light, wacky style belies a serious message of consideration, manners and tolerance that is a real pleasure for concerned parents to read.

Probably the funniest book I have ever read on parenting. Mellor doles out wise parenting advice with a side of satire. A real break from other "real" parenting books and a quick read for the ever busy among us. A must for parents who can laugh at themselves and/or others.

I loved Three-Martini Playdate, the Three-Martini Family Vacation did not disappoint either; just as funny, insightful, and intelligently written as the first one, I love these books!

I was expecting a lot more out of these books. I ordered both, thinking they would be good for a laugh.
Maybe I have a different kinda sence of humor, cause it they didn't make me laugh at all.
The running alcohol theme was a bit much.

This book is written in an entirely different tone than her first book. The first book was tongue in cheek and cute, but this one was more of an instructional manual of what she thought was wrong with other people's parenting and how they should fix it. Not nearly as funny. Dissapointing since I put off buying this book for years and then finally did. I was really expecting more since I absolutely loved her first book.

The tongue-in-cheek humor of this book is a welcome relief from all the parenting books out there that make everything so serious. Yes, we're stressed and harried but we don't have to worry about it all the time. This is a fast reading book that shines a quirky, very funny light on everything from car trips to cafe manners.

Take a break from your busy life and enjoy a cocktail with this book!

If you've ever had the back of your seat on a plane or train repeatedly kicked by a child whose parents seem to think that Junior is just "a little active, that's all," this book is for you.

As snortingly funny as The Three Martini Playdate, this book makes for a fun read on the beach while other people's children have temper tantrums until their parents cave in and let them have potato chips for lunch, dammit.

Buy one whether you're on vacation or not. You'll appreciate the laughs.

Despite the scholarly title, Three-Martini Family Vacation: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting, is NOT an expert approved, exhaustively tested, lawyer vetted guidebook for the raising of children. Rather, it is a HUMOR book, one woman's personal reaction to a certain type of parent that we are ALL familiar with while TRYING to be funny. (If you don't know of any parents who fit these descriptions that MIGHT be because YOU do.) Thus, Ms. Mellor makes use of exaggeration, irony, and even deliberately trying to shock. Chances are that if you find yourself getting mad, you are supposed to be laughing instead.

Now does this mean there is NO useful advice contained within? Au contraire! However, you WILL have to glean such nuggets from among the jokes. Teetotalers should not overreact to "advice" to turn every child activity possible into an excuse for drinking alcohol because I think even Ms. Mellor would concede that parents who take nothing else from her book than an excuse to drink more often have missed the point. Conservatives should not overreact to politically correct rants against the commercialization of holidays because I think even Ms. Mellor would concede that the problem is more with overindulgent parents than it is with EVIL corporations.

However, Ms. Mellor's most important advice is more general. First, your children like all children, need to be TAUGHT how to behave, and if you do a bad enough job of it, your children will suffer the consequences all the rest of their lives. Second, while parenting is arguably a lifetime job, the heavy duty work is a temporary one. If you make your children too much of an obsession, you will be totally lost when they finally leave home, and you might not have any friends (or spouse) left by then.

Note: Ms. Mellor begins her parenting course in The Three-Martini Playdate: A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting, formerly titled We Were Here First, Kid, while Were You Raised by Wolves?: Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood is a remedial course for children whose parents failed to apply the lessons of the first two books. As for the not yet in print You look fine, Really, your guess is as good as mine.

Loved it when I borrowed from library so bought my own copy tonight. Great read

i'm all for having fun with parenting, and taking all the little things less seriously. i'm also all for good grown-up fun without the kids, and for adding a couple of martinis to the dull bed/bath routine every now and then. what i am NOT into is the self-righteous judgment that so many parents feel obligated to throw around. do i really need to read a book by someone who obviously thinks her way is the right way, even as she criticizes the same sort of belief in other parents? who cares if i buy my kids' halloween costumes at the mall? (i prefer it, certainly.) and who is the author to suggest that a filthy cheap hotel is the right vacation for every family? (i'm all for the squeaky clean, child-friendly resorts she detests.) and clearly her two boys are angels (or drugged, or beaten down by their mother's constant nagging and complaining) but i EXPECT my children to run wild through airports. it's part of my grand plan to make them sleep on the freaking plane!

while i think the author has some humorous turns-of-phrase and a fondness for drinking, those are the only things i share with her. i'm all for: "parent, and let parent". there are funny anecdotes to share about parenting, and i could easily write a book about my own misadventures. but rather than make fun of herself, or use humor to laugh about her own shortcomings (come on -- we all have them!) the author instead aims to make everyone feel like they're doing everything wrong. is that what moms really want to read, when they FINALLY get a few minutes to themselves?