Feb 22, 2008

Mommy Knows Worst

Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting
by James Lileks

Facsimilies of ads and articles from newspapers, magazines and advice-books fill this book about parenting in the 1940's. With asides and explanations about why the advice is relatively reasonable and still adhered to today, or (much more frequently) hideously wrong and hilariously funny. Except I wasn't laughing. I just didn't find the author's effluent sarcasm amusing. So I didn't actually read the whole thing. I flipped through the pages reading material from the bygone era, occasionally looking to see what the modern commentary was. That plastic horse suspended on springs on page 162? We actually had one of those when I was a kid. I don't remember locomoting it across the floor or having difficulty dismounting, but I do recall badly pinched fingers (the danger of which is not mentioned in this book.)

Abandoned ..0/5.... Published: 2005, pp 176

2 comments:

  1. Ohhh, badly pinched fingers. I remember that from trampolines--although now they have those fancy protective coverings. This sounds like it could have been a fun book to read--too bad the writer's style amusing.

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  2. Trish- It was kinda fun, I think I just wansn't in the mood for so much sarcasm.

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