“Let’s hope that, over time, we’ll develop a bias, when we have an extra free hour, toward shoveling snow from the elderly neighbor lady’s sidewalk over streaming another Netflix sitcom.”
Parenting is not easy in this day and age. However, it can be even harder when parents don’t keep in mind that they are raising children to one day be adults who can take care of themselves. Several books have come out recently trying to help parents navigate this new world full of technology and different jobs like How to Raise An Adult, Raising an Original, Tech-Wise Family and Grown-Ups Guide to Teenage Humans. The Vanishing American Adult adds practical advice for parents to make sure their children have to tools to succeed in life as adults.
I added The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse to my to-read list shortly after I heard about the book. I didn’t have to wait long for the ebook to become available through the library’s Overdrive account. I’m always willing to read books that will help me have good tools to raise my children.
The Vanishing American Adult is an easy read and is broken down explaining the current situation of adults who still act like children and then into specific areas that Sasse thinks will ensure children become capable adults. The advice focuses on overcoming just following the current culture, learning the value of hard work, resist materialistic consumption, travel to understand needs vs. wants and be truly literate by reading the classics and discussing them. Overall, I think Sasse wants to make the point that parents have to have a vested interest in developing their children into the people they want to see in this world. It doesn’t just happen by chance, it has to be thought about and planned.
While this wasn’t my favorite current parenting book, it did have some good ideas and I would recommend it to any parent, especially those with children in upper elementary school or older.
