Title: Time to Parent: Organizing Your Life to Bring Out the Best in Your Child and You
Author: Julie Morgenstern
Pages: 330
Finished: September 7, 2020
Summary: Professional organizer Julie Morgenstern sets out to define the parenting job description. Using catchy acronyms that help the reader remember, she divides parenting into two halves. Doing you P.A.R.T and taking care of you S.E.L.F. Each half is divided into further quadrants where she then gives tips on how to help. To avoid summarizing the book, I'll just name the quadrants. P.A.R.T stands for Providing, Arranging, Relating, and Teaching. S.E.L.F stands for Sleep, Exercise, Love, and Fun.
Thoughts: Thanks to Covid19, a new baby, and the rest of 2020, I've been feeling really stretched thin. This book popped out on our parenting display at work and I grabbed it. Was it earth shattering? Meh. The organization tools were neat, but the information was stuff I knew. What I found helpful mostly was the definition of the P.A.R.T. and how it all fits in with your child. Essentially it's easy to fall into a Providing and Arranging role when the most important thing to your child is Relating with them. With that in mind, I did set some goals for myself this month based off the information in the book. But I have to admit, I didn't feel like I learned how to make things better.
The most useful parts to me were the definitions of the "job description" and the time management skills. There's also a self assessment which was interesting. I came out pretty balanced in all four parts but with super low scores. I didn't feel like there was anything in the book to help me raise those scores... but then there's a chapter at the end about what to do when you're in a time of crisis... and I feel like raising kids during a pandemic while my country hurdles headfirst into fascism may count as a crisis. Or perhaps that's the anxiety talking! Who knows?!?
The most useful parts to me were the definitions of the "job description" and the time management skills. There's also a self assessment which was interesting. I came out pretty balanced in all four parts but with super low scores. I didn't feel like there was anything in the book to help me raise those scores... but then there's a chapter at the end about what to do when you're in a time of crisis... and I feel like raising kids during a pandemic while my country hurdles headfirst into fascism may count as a crisis. Or perhaps that's the anxiety talking! Who knows?!?
Anyway, back to the book. Fine information but definitely more of reference book than a sit down and read book.
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