When we launched this site, we promised survival tips for children of the 80s living in today’s world. So many of us in this age range are now or are soon to be experiencing parenthood. If a survival guide is necessary for any territory we will ever enter, this is the one.
I was amazed at how many new and puzzling experiences we encountered as new parents, and often wondered why none of our friends or family who had gone before us had warned us of such things. It’s all a cruel cycle, for I now have no plans of enlightening my friends who will be parents in the future. Why make something that was so challenging for me easy for my competition, er, compatriots? They’ll discover these miracles in due time.
One of the most reassuring things I have stumbled upon during the journey of self-doubt I call “fatherhood” is this real children’s book written by Adam Mansbach. Go the F*ck to Sleep is total genius, and has gotten rave reviews from many. Here is the Amazon description:
Go the F*ck to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, California Book Award-winning author Adam Mansbach’s verses perfectly capture the familiar–and unspoken–tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. In the process, they open up a conversation about parenting, granting us permission to admit our frustrations, and laugh at their absurdity.
With illustrations by Ricardo Cortes, Go the Fuck to Sleep is beautiful, subversive, and pants-wettingly funny–a book for parents new, old, and expectant. You probably should not read it to your children.
