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    How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between)
    Unavailable
    How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between)
    Unavailable
    How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between)
    Ebook299 pages4 hours

    How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between)

    By Mei-Ling Hopgood

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A “breezy and entertaining” tour of parenting practices around the world that shows there’s more than one way to diaper a baby (The Boston Globe).
     
    Mei-Ling Hopgood, a first-time mom from suburban Michigan—now living in Buenos Aires—was shocked that Argentine parents allowed their children to stay up until all hours of the night. Could there really be social and developmental advantages to this custom? Driven by a journalist’s curiosity (and a new mother’s desperation for answers), Hopgood embarked on a journey to learn how other cultures approach the challenges all parents face: bedtimes, toilet training, feeding, teaching, and more.
     
    Observing parents around the globe and interviewing anthropologists, educators, and child-care experts, she discovered a world of new ideas. The Chinese excel at potty training, teaching their wee ones as young as six months old. Kenyans wear their babies in colorful cloth slings—not only is it part of their cultural heritage, but strollers seem outright silly on Nairobi’s chaotic sidewalks. And the French are experts at turning their babies into healthy, adventurous eaters. Hopgood tested her discoveries on her spirited toddler, Sofia, with some enlightening results.
     
    This look at the ways other cultures raise children offers parents the option of experimenting with tried and true methods—and reveals that there are a surprising number of ways to be a good parent.
     
    “Hopgood is charmingly self-deprecating about her own mothering of the formidable Sofia, who emerges as a sassy character in her own right.” —The Boston Globe
     
    “A best bet for new parents.” —Booklist (starred review)

     

    Editor's Note

    Father’s Day…

    The greatest anxiety while parenting is this constant fear that you’re doing it all wrong. You’re probably always wondering what the right way to treat and teach your children is. Take a tour around the world to see how different cultures raise their babies, so that you can be assured there’s no one right way to hold yours (in fact, there are many cool different ways).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJan 10, 2012
    ISBN9781616201203
    Unavailable
    How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between)
    Author

    Mei-Ling Hopgood

    Mei-Ling Hopgood is the author of How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm and Lucky Girl and a freelance journalist who has written for various publications, including National Geographic Traveler, Marie Claire and Parenting. She has worked as a reporter with the Detroit Free Press, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in the Cox Newspapers Washington bureau. A recipient of the National Headliner Best in Show, she has received several national and international journalism awards. She is an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and currently resides in Chicago.

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    Reviews for How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm

    3.5/5

    43 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Her running theme, that there are myriad ways to raise children and all 1) are fine and 2) deeply rooted in the culture, was interesting. But I felt like her own attempt to apply these ways to her own child felt simplistic and belied her very point. If raising a child within one cultural view has benefits, what does her sampler platter of parenting techniques do? I also thought this could have benefited from a final chapter on a particularly American technique. Surely we aren't all bad? (For a shorter, more entertaining look at the same thesis, I'd recommend watching the documentary Babies.)
    • 2/5
      Tried to find the answer of the title, but failed. I didn't see the distinctions that she tried to make, though some of the information was quite interesting.
    • 4/5
      Mei-Ling shares her story of parenting her daughter in Argentina and seeing the difference in parenting styles there from the US. She also shares research and things that she learned from people who live in various countries about the different philosophies and styles of parenting. Here in the US, we tend to study parenting as a science and feel that there is a "best" way to raise children. From eating to sleeping to potty training, play, work and school, children are raised in a variety of ways around the world and they generally do fine with however they are raised. Kids are pretty resilient. It is interesting to learn how babies are cared for in different ways around the world and the different approaches to sleep schedules, school, work and even bullying. I enjoyed this book very much and recommend it highly to parents!
    • 4/5
      Hopwood has traveled around the world as a new mom and learned a lot about what Americans might consider very unconventional ways of dealing with the same parenting obligations. There are differences that are guaranteed to surprise you. At the same time, you will stop and think about what you might be doing and why. Great for moms who might just be wondering what's going on and if they are "doing a good job." It takes the pressure off of worrying so much and helps you to trust your own instincts more.
    • 5/5
      No, this is not a parenting guide. Anyone with an ounce of curiosity about other cultures will enjoy How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm, and Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between) (Algonquin Books, 2012). Approaching with a hint of naïveté and a bit humor, journalist Mei-Ling Hopgood investigates the ways mothers and fathers around the world rear their children, and reports on her misadventures in actually trying to apply some of these ideas to her own daughter.Before getting on the defense, note that Eskimos is not an apologetic for non-American parenting styles. Many of the practices discussed are so deeply embedded in the cultures referenced, that application in the United States doesn’t always make sense. No bedtimes in party city Buenos Aires might not translate well here, where children find security in structure and familiar schedules. Chinese hosts will be more understanding then American ones when your diaperless toddler makes a mess on their floor. And carrying your infant all day when lions are constantly about saves lives in Kenya, where there aren’t many paved surfaces for strollers anyway. However, Hopgood does encourage her readers to think outside the box and take away real lessons on how to improve upon current parenting norms.