FF: Handbook Junkie: Tell Me What To Do!!!

Something about me you ought to know: I am a parenting book junkie. It's sad, I know, but it stems from spending two of the four years it took me to earn my associates degree (in early childhood ed) being pregnant and a new mother with a never ending supply of educational and child development material.

When I finally graduated, I started having attacks, like I needed a handbook right away: "What do I do with all this poop? Oh, isn't there a book about making him eat? Can I get a pamphlet on biting? Where is that article about the kid who picked her nose until it bled and what her mother did to make her stop it?"

All this dependence on reading for answers seems to have stripped me of some natural maternal instinct to figure out (on my own) what the heck to do with my son. It can only be compared to the way Spell-check has enabled my once word-savvy brain to disengage when I am handed a pen and paper. Why do I let this happen?

Sooo... I bring all this up because I bought another book yesterday. I was doing pretty good, it had been over a year since my last relapse. Unless you count the one I bought for my sister... Anyway, I'm going to read it, decide whether or not I agree with any of it, and discuss what I think about "ScreamFree Parenting" by Hal Edward Runkel, LMFT. (I have no idea what that stands for).

By the way, I do not - as my mother accused me of doing - take in everything I read as 'truth' and/or 'rule.' I am an intelligent person (sometimes) and I CAN think for myself, mother! And if one more person tells me I don't need to learn anything or read more books because, "Hey, this is how my parents did it and I turned out just fine," I might scream.

And for the record, no, you most often did not. But that's a topic for another post.

This post is part of Flashback Fridays, hosted by Scary Mommy. If you have an old post you'd like to share (or even an old photo or memory) head over to Scary Mommy on this lovely Friday.

**Originally posted on January 5, 2009**

For the record, I did finish it, but it took forever and I never posted anything else about it. It was helpful and had very interesting points, but most of the chapters were kind of boring to read.