Toddler: Real-Life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love

I really did forget how exhausted living with a toddler makes me. I should have taken better notes with my first when I raised him through toddlerhood a decade ago, kept a list of things to remember. ~You will not be allowed to move an inch outside of the toddler's orbit without then having to listen to and deal with the terrified wails of a child who sounds like their toenails are being peeled back. ~Forget about getting anything all the way done, and try not to get too frustrated by the piles of half-finished things everywhere. If it gets too bad you could always just push it into a heap in the middle of the living room and light a fire-use it to roast the toddler. ~Nobody wants to listen to your kid scream on the other end of the phone. Nobody. So forget about maintaining any long-distance friendships. ~If the toddler doesn't have a chance to run around like a possessed pony for at least three hours a day, you shouldn't be surprised by the way the living room looks when the kid finally lets go of the ceiling fan and goes to bed. One thing has recently given me a wonderful hit of sanity, and a much-needed reminder that I'm not the only person with a toddler in her life who sometimes has to fight the urge to throw herself in front of a speeding bus: Toddler: Real-life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love, edited by Jennifer Margulis. This book is full of open and frank essays about life with the little heads. The writing is wonderful, and reading it gave me a feeling of renewal and connection to my parenting, and reminded me that this part will have passed into something else before I even know it. It allowed me to give myself permission to hate this stage as much as I love it, and to not beat myself up for wishing it would move just a little bit faster so I can get on with MY life already. It makes a great gift for anybody who has a toddler ruling their life, so get it, read it, and spread it around. Even though this book won an Independent Publisher's Award, there's talk of it going out of print, and that should not be allowed to happen. Plus, the book got banned at Jennifer's own hometown school! Intrigue aside, the writing rocks the house. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

If you're living with those little irrational creatures who can switch on and off temper tantrums like a Rockin' Elmo doll, this book is for you. Frequently funny, at-times irreverent and always painfully true-to-life, "Toddler" is a classic that every parent of 1-3 year-olds should read... just as soon as the temper tantrum ends.

At that certain time of night -- usually on a Sunday -- when everyone's tired and one or the other of my children is crumbling and crumbling loudly, I pull out this book. The essays are concise and well written and often out-and-out hilarious. At those moments when you feel that you must be the only person (OK, mother) in the world feeling what you feel, this book can be a lifesaver. And it does this without playing the political/gender role card. Kudos!

Those looking for a syrupy, sentimental, all-warm-and-fuzzy idealization of child-rearing probably won't like this one so much; but it will resonate with others who are more open to consider the complex range of experiences and emotions toddlers bring to their parents. I would not describe it so much as a how-to manual, but more as a testament to the fact that people who become parents are still people in other respects too. In this regard I'm partial to one piece in particular, "Is It Day Now?" by Shu-Huei Henrickson. If you have a kid already, buy it and read it, and you'll take heart from good company in many of your feelings. If you don't have a kid yet, buy it and read it too, and you'll get a better sense of what may be in store!

TODDLER is a must-read for any parent of a child who has suddenly shape-shifted from a sweet, content, cooing infant to a suprisingly strong-willed 3-foot-tall drill seargant. Often, we mothers and fathers of toddlers keep our war stories to ourselves, trying in vain to sustain the illusion that we do, in fact, wear the pants in our house. But anyone who's actually been the caretaker of a stubborn developing human whose pointed goal of complete independence is continually thwarted by stature, social constraints, and parental interference knows who the boss really is. TODDLER is a kind of parenting tell-all, a first-person, behind-the-scenes glimpse of the toughest reality show there is: raising a child. Parents will be comforted to discover that their kid isn't the only one with inexplicable demands and intense preferences, and it will come as a relief to know that parents have plenty of company in the challenging experience of shepherding their charges through the hard-going terrain of two-year-old life. And yet the book is not all horror stories and I-can't-believe-she-said-that-in-front-of-the-neighbors incidents: while there is none of the treacly "but it's all worth it" sentiment that often pervades writing about life with young children, the book does feature sweet moments reminding us why it is we love our irascible, demanding, incredible toddlers as much as we do. TODDLER is a unique and wonderful book -- and a must-have addition to any mother or father's parenting library.by Andrea BuchananAuthor of _Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It_(Seal Press)