Hunt, Gather, Parent
Ratings17
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings17
Average rating4.1
An NPR Science Desk correspondent challenges the misleading child-rearing practices commonly recommended to parents, outlining alternatives grounded in international ancestral traditions that are being used effectively throughout the modern world. In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones. --
Reviews with the most likes.
Interesting take on some stuff. A lot of other stuff felt disconnected.
Especially the part about the Hadzabe felt like it was very much removed from our world. Sure. We can learn from these societies. But the author is in a very different wealthy environment where she can fly in. Learn some stuff and go back.
Anyways. Interesting. But not a must read.
I liked the part about sharing responsibilities
Some good stuff, some very appropriative stuff. There are a few tactics in this book that I think I'll implement, but there were also several that I was somewhat side-eye-y about. Either way, though, it promoted thought about how I currently parent and why.
There are some things I'll take away from this book that are useful, but on the whole, I find the exercise of comparing ourselves to other cultures and then figuring out what we're doing wrong a useless one. Contexts are different, connotations are different. This book feels like it's talking down at me for not being like other people across the world, and to be honest: parenting like the Mayans isn't going to fix this.
