Savanaudiškos Priežastys Turėti Daugiau Vaikų (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I feel conflicted about giving this book 2 stars. On one hand, it's written in an awkward, pandering tone and many of the arguments are very hand-wavy. On the other, this book may be responsible for a huge increase in my quality of life if/when I have kids (now isn't that a terrifying thought?).The book's basic premise is that modern parents "over-parent" their children and make both themselves and their children unhappy. Caplan tries to convince the reader that the nature/nurture debate has been resolved by science - in the short term, nurture has a large impact (e.g. a "time-out in the naughty corner" will temporarily improve behavior), but in the long-term these effects are negligible and nature has an overwhelming influence on long-term behavioral/economic/health outcomes.The upshot is that you can basically be pretty hands off with your kids and it's almost guaranteed that they'll end up just fine. So instead of being paranoid about kidnappers or being a piano lesson Nazi, chill out and your kids will grow up to be normal people without you having to do much about it.Caplan tries to make the argument that because raising kids is a "low-cost" proposition and having kids/grandkids when you're older is awesome, you should have more kids than you think you want to have when you're in your twenties.I'm far from convinced, but it's certainly an interesting perspective. Well, he's preaching to the choir with me as I am about to be a mom of 5 and could be talked into more. That being said, I really liked his take on how people should approach the question of family size. A few things I liked in particular:Think about how many kids you want now but also how many you would like when you are 50 or 60 years old. Balance those two wishes and remember that the short term pain of having young children is just that - short term. Don't let the short term pain stop you from having more kids. I can certainly speak to this as I have 4 awesome kids and life is blessedly easier now than it was when they were younger. Stop being a super parent. Don't make your kids do tons of activities neither they nor you particularly care about. If you are worn out and exhausted as a parent, ease up on activities. Your kids will benefit more from a more relaxed parent than they will from another activity.Most of how your kid turns out as an adult is genetic so ease up on them and yourself. Treat your kids with dignity and respect, be a good role model, and don't get into the uber-parent rat race.
What do You think about Savanaudiškos Priežastys Turėti Daugiau Vaikų (2012)?
Reminds me a lot of freakononics, but it was written like a lit review, which was cumbersome.
—Mayda
Of course I'm going to like a book that confirms most of my existing biases!
—shell
Nature beats nurture,So relax and have more kidsOr you'll wish you had.
—pmelle
I heard about this on Freakonomics radio and am intrigued...
—luyummie45
