Oblivious to the Obvious
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| © 2010. Rivka Greenberg |
Buy your copy here.
Faster than a flying meatball let loose by an insolent hedgehog, more water soluble than a chimera released from its leash, and heavier than a grandmother who ate too many slices of eggplant, Oblivious to the Obvious: Wishfully Mindful Parenting breaks through the barriers of dime store strictures and invites all grownups to celebrate, to contemplate, and to gyrate in tempo with, the stresses and joys of being a caretaker of young ones.
From mountains of laundry to lizards left to roam among dirty dishes, Oblivious to the Obvious sets up house in the hallowed hindmost region of sleep deprived adults' minds. Junk mail, unrelentlessly chiming computers and incorrigible kittens are only a sample of the denizens populating this book.
This volume validates that it's insufficient: to debate whether or not a bug is user friendly before smashing it, to fail to discern between "guitars" and "basses," and to insist that service center technicians cease trying to rip off innocent matrons. Further, this read confirms that affable living includes: ceramics without teens, cell phones with muted ring tones, and quolls assigned social status.
If you seek a respite from battling traffic, from sweeping sand out of suitcases or from walk around the piles of dog poo left behind by your mindless neighbors, pick up a copy of this delightful collection and snicker a bit. Parenting will remain an imperfect art no matter how many babysitters you employ, how many relatives you encourage, or how many white hairs you sprout. Let Oblivious to the Obvious entice you to giggle, snort, or otherwise chortle your way through child rearing.
There is no strewn garbage so awful or bathroom flood so deep as to be irredeemable by a lens of a good-hearted narrative. Rather than resigning yourself to sighing and moaning, join with the growing population of adults who accept that time tables, polite children and clean closets are entirely absurd.
Samples from Oblivious to the Obvious: Wishfully Mindful Parenting
Excerpt from Fiction and Phobias
Excerpt from Negotiating with a Kitten
Excerpt from Mission Almost Possible
Complete Baseball Caps, Carbohydrates and Service Centers as seen in Mused
Complete Parenting Teens After the Advent of the Internet as seen in Women Writers
Table of Contents for Oblivious to the Obvious: Wishfully Mindful Parenting
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Credits
Dedication
Introduction: Parenting Writes Me
Writings
I. Exploring the Seesaw Side
1. I Smile as I Drift to Sleep2. Couch Creatures, Laundry, and Crafts Materials
3. Junk Mail
4. Baseballs, Beach Balls and Furballs
5. Flicking
6. Just Keep Breathing
7. The Tintinnabulation
8. Mission Almost Possible
II. Negotiating with Hairy Beings
1. Something Furry2. Negotiating with a Kitten
3. Diurnal, Nocturnal, and Crepuscular Family Members
4. Bad Little Things
5. Ambitious Wildlife
6. Of Lice and Women
7. To Beetle or Not to Beetle
8. Mama Quolls
9. Pets not to be Adopted
III. Harmony, Cacophony, and Other Familial Music
1. Toilet Seats, Piano Benches and Nursing Chairs: Mama's Moolah Madness2. Small Mornings
3. Baseball Caps, Carbohydrates and Service Centers
4. Naught but Self-Care, Except in Most Good Marriages
5. Electric Guitars
6. Afar and Beyond: Another Time, Another Place
7. Parental Self-Fulfillment Matters, Sort Of
IV. World Views
1. Obscene Proliferations2. Parenting Teens after the Advent of the Internet
3. Green Parenting
4. Nurturing While Acculturating
5. Under the Hood
6. No Economic Slowdown Needed for Sane Consumerism
7. Terrified
8. I Can Almost
V. Actualizing the Mommy Writer
1. Teen Scene Queen2. Mama's Little Boy's Unwanted Opinion
3. The Ferocity of a Mommy Writer
4. Yes, I'm Shouting: Disengaging from Solipsisms
5. Verbal Ceramics without Teens
6. Creativity and the Frump
7. Fiction and Phobias