Comments on: The Tyranny of the Kindergarchy

By: ChristineMM

ChristineMM — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:09:35 +0000

I think your thoughts on parenting children of your age are on the mark. At that age taking care of them is time consuming. However that is altogether different than what Epstein is talking about in The Kindergarchy. I have a hunch that your kids are too young now for you to know what is ahead on your parenting journey. What I mean is as your kids get older and as you do more things and are around others with older kids it is ‘another scene’ altogether different than what you know from normal life with children aged 2 and 4. To what extent you will do things that Mr. Epstein feels is ‘not good’ will vary but for sure you will see lots of stuff that other families are doing that would upset Mr. Epstein.

I thought over The Kindergarchy for a week and read it a total of three times before being able to write out my thoughts. It was a lot to take in.

Have you read yet “The Over-Scheduled Child”? If not I think you should read it NOW. It actually addresses pregnancy and parenting infants as well as parenting kids your age and older. I’d be curious what you thought of that book. It was originally published under the title “Hyper Parenting” but the publisher changed the title to help increase sales I guess that title was too negative. LOL.

I am trying very hard to both provide my kids with a good and enriching life while not over-indulging them and making them spoiled brats with a huge sense of entitlement in the mean time. I homeschool my kids in part to avoid the nonsense, negative issues and stress of public schools. With that said Mr. Epstein and also the authors of “The Over-Scheduled Child” may think that homeschooling is the ultimate in controlling a child’s life and the ultimate in hyper parenting. LOL. I don’t really care what they think though and need to do what I think is right and best by my children right here and now.

Here is my blog post on my thoughts on The Kindergarchy if you want to read it.

http://thethinkingmother.blogspot.com/2008/06/thoughts-on-kindergarchy.html

Have a great weekend.

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:11:27 +0000

I’m traveling again, so quickly–yes. Use the kids for the housework and the gardening. Our guy loves it–now he picks the ripe strawberries and eats them from the strawberry pot we did together. He also knows how much we value our plants and other living things from the fact that I’m sad when he steps on them–he’s learning patience, and paying attention from our work together.

Finally, finally saw the Top Chef part one finale. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

So much to say, so little time.

By: hopeinbrazil

hopeinbrazil — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:47:49 +0000

Wow! Terrific article. Thanks for pointing it out. When my fourth son was born my mom reminded me, “Don’t think that just because you have no girls that you have no one to help with the housework”. Ha! It’s been hard to go against the cultural grain asking them to help me, but it’s been worth it.

The article was also helpful because I worry A LOT about one of my son’s academic future. I need to learn to be more balanced about this. Thanks again.