You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids by Lindsay Powers

Book Summary:

Cribsheet meets The Sh!t No One Tells You in this no-holds-barred, judgment-free parenting guide that sets the record straight on every hot-button parenting topic by longtime journalist and founder of the viral #NoShameParenting movement.

What if you could do more for your kids, by doing a whole lot less?

Parenting today has become a competitive sport, and it seems that everyone is losing. From the very moment that little line turns blue, parents-to-be find themselves in a brave new world where every decision they make is fraught, every action they take is judged, and everything they do seems to be the wrong thing.

Formula feed? Breast is best.
Breastfeed in public? That’s indecent.
Cry it out? You’re causing permanent harm to your child.
Don’t sleep train? Your child will never learn to sleep on his or her own.
Stay home? You’re setting a bad example for your kids.
Go back to work? Don’t you love your kids more than your job?

Lindsay Powers—former editor-in-chief of Yahoo! Parenting, creator of the #NoShameParenting movement, and mom of two—is here to help parents everywhere breathe a collective sigh of relief. This laugh-out-loud funny, accessible, and reassuring book sets the record straight on all of the insane conflicts that parents face—from having a glass of wine while pregnant to sleep training, childcare, feeding, and even sex after baby.

Drawing on the latest research and delivered in a relatable, comforting voice, You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids demonstrates that it is possible to take the stress out of parenting and sit back and enjoy the ride.

Publication Day:

March 31st, 2020

Genre:

Parenting Nonfiction

My Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣

My Review:

You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids (affiliate link)

Motherhood Book Club

I help run and facilitate a Motherhood book club at our local library for moms in our community so I am always on the lookout for books to add to our reading list. Our book club focuses primarily on nonfiction books related to parenthood so when I saw this book available as a galley, I couldn’t wait to check it out.

One of the most common things that come up in our discussions is the many ways we feel like we aren’t measuring up. Whether our kids are big or small, whether we work full time, part-time or stay home, everyone feels infiltrated with how we think we “should” be doing things and all the ways we feel like we are lacking.

With technology and social media, we are bombarded with more information than ever before and while there are many benefits to this, there are also just as many reasons we are having total information overload.

**More about You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids…**

In You Can’t F*ck Up Your Kids, author Lindsay Powers takes on some common and often highly sensitive parenting topics such as breastfeeding vs. formula feeding, daycare vs. staying home, screentime, and the idea that any parent has it “all figured out'”.

Her writing is relatable and I enjoyed how she interweaved research with a conversational style of writing in her chapters. There is a great balance of information from her own experiences as well as other parents which helped give a wider perspective on these topics.

Her overall message is that the majority of parents are really just doing the best they can and that most of these choices are not going to make it or break it for our children. She talked through each of these topics and why either way, your kids are going to be just fine. Enter her #noshameparentingmovement.

I appreciated the end of her book and how she shared how her own childhood trauma affected her not only as a parent but also as a writer. There are, of course, choices that can significantly impact children negatively, but they are (mostly likely) not because someone didn’t breastfeed or allowed their child to fall asleep on their own in their crib.

I appreciated this relatable and informative approach to discussing the many issues parents (and primarily mothers) are up against these days and highly recommend it.

Thank you to Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!