How to Teach Children to Be Human, With Writer Katherine Newman
Parenting is a wild and confusing journey to say the least. So, this week we are learning to teach our kids the finer points of being decent, responsible, adults with the help of writer Catherine Newman. Catherine is the author of several books for children and adults, including Waiting for the Bird , Catastrophic Happiness, and One Mixed Night . Her latest book is How to Become Human: 65 Extremely Useful and Super Essential Skills to Learn Before You Grow Up .
Hear Katherine talking to other parents, Editor-in-Chief Alice Bradley and Parenting Editor Megan Walbert about her own experiences raising two children, why it’s important for your kids to see you do the job, and how to get challenging kids interested in her book.
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Highlights from this week’s series
On how we sometimes miss an opportunity to teach our children important life skills:
I think we are mistaken in thinking that [children] understand this in the same way as language, through osmosis. But I think it’s funny, I was talking to Asha Dornfest and she had a really amazing description of the moment of the pandemic that I really appreciated. She feels like everyone has been at home all the time, the curtain has been pulled aside, and the children can really see how the household works. And she feels as if by accident, we hid it from our children. Like everything that happens when they are at school, or while they sleep, or, you know, anywhere. And now we’re just at home and doing things like doing laundry that day. And when you clean the bathroom, you’ll usually be at school, whatever it is. And I really like it, because it made me feel that children not only do not always know how to do it, they do not even know that it is happening.
On the importance of teaching life skills to boys in the same way we teach girls:
[T] This was just a recent study showing that men don’t do more housework now than our fathers, and I find that alarming. And we know that it makes life difficult for women, and we know that it contributes to all kinds of inequalities in the workplace … I really feel like we don’t want boys to just say, “Oh, we have no idea how this is. happens, “you know? … So I feel like we should compensate for that a bit by making sure the boys know this. I don’t want to teach differently, just make sure there are expectations.
About the culture of willingness to help in your family:
[I am] in my family – and I do not expose us as a model because there are so many problems. However, the culture is like having someone help you with anything when you need help … I mean there are things that people usually do when they take out the trash or recycle and the like. But the taste is like, “Oh my God, I just dropped a gallon jug of milk. Can someone help me wash with a mop? “And someone will be. And I feel that my children are helping me completely. And I don’t expect irritation to ask, you know what I mean? Like, this atmosphere is not annoying. It’s just something like, “Oh my God, I’m drowning. Help me cheer up. ” And they just do it. I think it’s great.
Katherine Newman Weekly Update: Ally Face Mask Pattern .
Listeners and readers can get Catherine’s book, How to be a Human, here 20% off using the PERSON code when placing an order.
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