I Wanna Be Sedated: 30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers

Reading this book came at a time I was feeling overwhelmed with teenage issues and it gave me a sense of perspective that I sorely needed.

I don't know if I feel better or worse after reading this incredible book. I could see myself and my teenagers in so many of the stories. I'd laugh, I'd tear up, I'd holler to one of my three teens to "listen to this, sounds like us (you, me)" This is must reading for every parent of teens, it is our lives. No family is perfect, nor even close, but it's so easy to think everyone else has it easier than we do. We all have our struggles, most mutter through somehow. It's just the getting there that's so roller-coaster. Teenagers are so roller-coaster. Great book.

I read this book in one sitting and was delighted. This book offers a smorgasbord of honest views in re parenting teens/young adults and offered refreshing insights. I was delighted to see two of my favorite authors, Joyce Maynard and Louise Erdrich among those included in this book. Each author has helped shed even more light on an interesting aspect of their lives. The essay format personalized the accounts and made the reader feel included. Joyce Maynard, a gifted writer included an essay about her son's girlfriend spending the night. Her essay was unflinchingly honest; clear, sharp and direct as are all her works. That is what makes them outstanding and effective. I like the honest conversations she had with her three children and how she took a healthy and honest approach to sex and sexuality. To her credit, she taught them the correct names for genitals instead of silly, infantile euphemisms. One funny anecdote she shared was when her youngest child, then 4, sang about vaginas on a city bus, much to the consternation of his fellow passengers. I like the way she responded and kept communication lines open for her children. Erdrich's account of her daughter's driving was touching and funny. One can almost feel the snow and ice as they navigate the icy streets of Minnesota. The inclusion of fathers' essays helped make for a nice balance and richer picture. This book is a beautiful mosiac, pieced together by the brilliant works of each author.

I just finished reading this book and I was wowed. First, as a parent gorging herself on a feast of rare, delicious honesty, thirty heaping platters of truth and solace and fellow-feeling. Second, as a devotee of the essay form, I was pleased to encounter so many favorite names and to be introduced to so many exciting new ones. Third, as a contributor - proud to see my work in this setting. I think the essay I most needed to read as a parent was Stevan Allred -- and I had similar grateful responses to Daniel Glick's, Gail Hudson's and Debra Gwartney's strong and brave work. What a freaking relief it all was. Even just the little detail in Roberta Israeloff's, about the backpack dropped by the door and left to sit till the next morning on departure -- did me a world of good. The editors did an amazing job in the tough area of humor: Chast and Barry are the gold standard, of course, and Cameron's opener is perfect. The exquisite writing in Hal Ackerman's poem and Anna Viadero's piece -- as well as the Erdrich and the Lyons essays (I love this Lyons guy - I love all the dads) -- make the last section an incredibly lyrical salvo. Laura Smith Porter got it just right (I have a band here too), as did Joyce Maynard (Ditto condoms and girlfriends), and what a great last line by Anna Quindlen. Hudson and Conlon have done a stand-out job, shedding equal light on the scary lonely parts of this job and the funnest-ever Marx brothers camaraderie of it. Buy two - I've already given both of mine away.

As a psychologist working with adolescents for twenty years I love this book. As a parent of a 17 year old, I FEEL this book! Wow what a wonderful book. "I Wanna Be Sedated" takes you through so many intimate glimpses of parenting, from so many different perspectives and varied experiences of different parents. The writing is sophisticated and strong, from the hilarious moments to the moments where a parent holds her breathe and prays. This book is honest and uplifting, deep and lighthearted, for mothers and fathers everywhere who at least once while bringing up their teenager really wanted to be sedated! I highly recommend it to all parents. It goes into truth and vulnerability where other teen parenting books preach. It shows there is love, anger, frustration, wonderment, and awe in bringing up teenagers.