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A review by thepancreas11
Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right by Jamie Glowacki
4.0
Under most circumstances, the conversational--borderline confrontational?--tone would be pretty off-putting, but this is a battle, and Jamie Glowacki is my Henry V (so...once more OUT of the breach, dear friends?). Seriously, even a month ago, I shuddered to think of the transition out of diapers. Even a month ago, I started to sweat at the sight of the training potty. Even a month ago, I would have waited for cues, hoping that my toddler would up and train himself for no explicable reason. Am I ready? Maybe not. But am I all jacked up and eager to get this thing done? You betcha. It's like I'm about to play that nondescript game in that sport I played in high school, and she's my ornery, politically incorrect coach telling me to "Nut up" or some other highly offensive phrase. It shouldn't work, but it does.
Normally, I'm not a fan of repetition. If I feel like I haven't gotten enough out of a certain section of a book, I'll just re-read it. Maybe I'll fold a couple page corners down for the things I find important. But here, the repetition builds a sort of mantra. Every time I read them, I say them over again: "Do not over prompt," "Stay calm but firm," "No undies, no problem." The repetition of certain sentiments as they are sprinkled through the various troubleshooting chapters gets my mind churning in the right direction.
A lot of the criticism I read about the book was that it's misogynistic, that it directs almost all of it's rhetoric at moms. I suppose part of that is the author being a single mother (or at least that's what I gathered from certain things she wrote). A part of it, however, is that men have earned the reputation. I must confess, I did not seek out this book; my wife did. I think that we should hold men to a better standard, but I understand why the book has the tone it does.
Normally, I'm not a fan of repetition. If I feel like I haven't gotten enough out of a certain section of a book, I'll just re-read it. Maybe I'll fold a couple page corners down for the things I find important. But here, the repetition builds a sort of mantra. Every time I read them, I say them over again: "Do not over prompt," "Stay calm but firm," "No undies, no problem." The repetition of certain sentiments as they are sprinkled through the various troubleshooting chapters gets my mind churning in the right direction.
A lot of the criticism I read about the book was that it's misogynistic, that it directs almost all of it's rhetoric at moms. I suppose part of that is the author being a single mother (or at least that's what I gathered from certain things she wrote). A part of it, however, is that men have earned the reputation. I must confess, I did not seek out this book; my wife did. I think that we should hold men to a better standard, but I understand why the book has the tone it does.