Room to Grow: Parents Disclose the Awe, Unanticipated Joys, and Paradoxes of Raising Young Children

As my daughter grew from a baby to a toddler, I found myself as confused about parenting books as I was about her clothing size. No books seemed to fit my needs: I no longer wanted the "new parent hand holding" books, but I didn't feel ready to approach this new stage without the comfort I've always derived from reading thoughtful -- and thought-provoking -- essays about personal experiences similar to my own. When a friend told me about "Room To Grow" I was relieved; when I started to read the essays, I was ecstatic. This book was exactly what I was looking for: smart, moving pieces about the kind of parenting issues the parenting books ignore. I am certain I'll come back to this book again and again as my daughter grows older. Every parent should know about this collection.

I had really enjoyed the same editor's volume of essays on parenting in the first year, called 'Child of Mine', and so I was anxious to read this book, which contains essays by various authors on their experiences in raising children a little older (generally between two and ten years of age).At first I was slightly disappointed because a number of the essays didn't seem to be of immediate interest to me personally, and because this collection did not seem to have the same coherence as the first. But after I began to read, I found myself making little notes of agreement in the margins, underlining sympathetic or insightful passages, and smiling at the experiences similar to my own. Even when an essay was not immediately relevant to me (such as the selections on adoption and raising twins), I found instances of shared experience with the writers, who seemed to be as awestruck and profoundly affected as me by their adventures in parenting.Oddly enough, in reviewing the book, I found I most enjoyed the selections by the male contributors -- delighted at similarities of common experience and enlightened by the differences -- often told with great humor. So this book also helped me to appreciate the unique experience of fatherhood.Very enjoyable.