An alternative to "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"
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In the midst of the outcry over 鈥淏attle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,鈥� a very different parenting book has quietly climbed the charts. It鈥檚 not the top-10 bestseller that Amy Chua has authored. It鈥檚 filed under humor. But its rise has a lot to say about community and human kindness.
The book is 鈥淵ou鈥檒l Lose The Baby Weight (and Other Lies About Pregnancy And Childbirth),鈥� a low-on-the-radar new release by Dawn Meehan, author of the popular blog .
Meehan, who got her start with that described grocery shopping with six children, recently hit hard times. As , Meehan鈥檚 husband left her, two of her children were hospitalized for depression, and 鈥� the final blow amidst crushing medical bills 鈥� her family just lost its health insurance. Meehan had that she was taking time off from the blog to figure out how to pay for health insurance and survive.
But then, as Belkin explained to readers, Meehan鈥檚 site manager , urging readers to give back to a writer who had provided them all such laughter and hope and courage. She suggested letters of encouragement, or prayers. She urged them to buy Meehan鈥檚 book and show publishers her fan base. (At one point when I looked over the weekend, Meehan ranked #3 in the parenting charts on Amazon, behind only two 鈥淲hat To Expect When You鈥檙e Expecting鈥� books.) Or, the site manager suggested, readers could donate cash. By last night, that fund topped $13,500.
Even those thousands, I realize, aren鈥檛 a magic bullet when it comes to insuring a family of seven, or covering a hospital stay. But it鈥檚 sure a wonderful life raft to help Meehan get on her feet.
When on the blog, she said that she would pay the kindness forward, and maybe it was already spreading ripples. Perhaps, she wrote, there were people reading her story who, even if 鈥渢hey weren鈥檛 moved to help me, a person they don鈥檛 know," might still be motivated to "make a difference somewhere for someone. Perhaps they went out and shoveled an elderly neighbor鈥檚 driveway, or brought a casserole to a member of their church who just had surgery, or called an old friend simply to tell them they鈥檙e thinking of them, or donated money to help with the flooding in Australia. It鈥檚 all good. And one act of kindness can spread so far.鈥�
Kindness is a more ephemeral lesson than the piano or violin of Chua鈥檚 tiger-parenting. But Meehan鈥檚 鈥渙ne act of kindness鈥� epiphany is, I would bet, more valuable than anything else in either mom鈥檚 book.
Rebekah Denn blogs at .
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