If you have not read it or listened to it already, you should check out the new book by Adam Mansbach Go the Fuck to Sleep. It is a funny take on a children's book that pokes the bear that is parents struggling to get their bundles of joy to go to sleep.
The book is cute and funny and has some great illustrations. The book however does reveal a bit about how many middle class/ upper class parents feel about their kids, their lives as parents, and their lives. While she has gotten flack for it, Katie Roiphe's piece in Slate about the book makes a lot of good points. "Why So Angry, Dad? Go the F**k to Sleep exposes yuppie parents' sexlessness, self-pity, and repressed rage."
The piece has received almost 400 comments many of which basically express the sentiment, chill out, lighten up, it is a funny book. Some of the comments also are the standard critiques of any yuppie parenting piece which are valid, however I do think Roiphe is on to something and the reason that people like the book is that they can relate.
Why have human parents been putting children to bed for thousands of years and it is not such a struggle for so many? And even if your kid stays up an hour past "bed time" why do we get so angry?
If a married couple never has any time together and does not talk about anything in front of the kids from 6 am until bedtime, it is not surprising they will be angry if the kid does not go to bed when they are "supposed" to. Maybe people should try to do what my parents did, let me play by myself and my friends so that they can have time to chill out, talk to each other, talk to their friends, so that at bed time they are not dying to have 2 hours of kid free time before bed.
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