How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims

On Veteran’s Day, Jennifer hosted our next bookclub with How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims.

This non-fiction book describes the current trend in parenting where adults become so involved in their children’s lives that kids are not able to develop the fundamental skills needed to survive in the world as adults.  The anecdotes in the book describing the extent of parent involvement are certainly disturbing (parents calling their child’s employers).

 In general, there was agreement that the book became a bit repetitive after the first few chapters – ok ok, we got the point.  But all-in-all, it was informative and certainly encouraged reflection of our own parenting styles and how we would like to do better.

The book inspired some interesting discussion about raising children in other countries besides the United States. (Karen enlightened us with more worldly views from her experiences in Canada and Switzerland.)  We also explored different thoughts about college admissions and chores.  Unfortunately, some of our bookclubbers were missing and were greatly missed.

On to our last bookclub of the year …