The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry

Reviewed Date: June 16th, 2022

Couples tend to believe that they know how to raise children. It is as if they are born with parenting knowledge. More often than not, they are wrong. Parenting is not limited to changing diapers, washing them, and putting them to sleep; there is more that one doesn’t realize.

Every parent wants their children to be happy. They allocate everything but not their quality time. Though children try to say their feelings, parents usually shush them by telling them it’s nothing or “don’t be silly.” But children don’t grow psychologically well if they have been shushed all the time; there would be no self-resilience.

Also, most people didn’t receive enough love, care, and attention while they were growing up. The family would have loud arguments, beat each other, and throw cold responses, and these are part of the child’s environment. The impact on the children, though, was commonly believed to fade as time passed.

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read is an incredible book, and I am finding it useful. I wish my mother had read this book. But the good part is I am reading it, and I have a choice to break the negative patterns persisting in my family lineage. I will share two here.

I like children; I love to play with them as long as they don’t cry or make noises. I leave if they are making noises or give the child to their mother when crying. But after reading the first chapter, I tried to understand what the reasons for this behavior are. And it goes back to my childhood.

My father passed away when I was 6 years old; the family was on the verge of poverty. My relatives found me hard work because I was naughty and loud. I enjoyed myself, but they would pass insults, trying to shut me down somehow. When I cried, instead of consoling me, they would leave the place or give me to my mother. I am doing the same now.