elin schoen brockman

“In a warm-hearted, good-natured alternative to out-and-out instructional books about raising children, Schoen offers instead an anecdotal meditation on ‘how raising children changes us, our attitudes, behavior, personality, goals, our views of ourselves and the world, subtly or dramatically, consciously and unconsciously.’ Quoting everyone from Bruno Bettelheim to Bruce Springsteen on the ‘therapeutic effect’ of having and/or raising children, she offers an unabashedly, unashamedly positive view of the impact of children on parents, psychologically, spiritually and otherwise. ‘Simply – although it’s not so simple – realizing how our children can help us reach our full potential as people puts us well on the way to realizing our full potential as parents.’”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Schoen’s book is wonderful because it shows that what many call the limiting times of bringing up children can, in fact, be liberating.”

Kevin McKinnon in City Parent, Oakville, Ontario

“’Growing with your Child’...explores this life-altering experience called parenting in a fresh and significant way...Most parents will recognize themselves in the anecdotes and gain some insight from the ideas and feelings that have rarely been expressed in print...The nice thing about ‘Growing With Your Child’ is that it is not about sacrificing for the children. It is not about how parents can make their children better people. It is not a self-help book filled with psycho-babble or New Age platitudes. It is a book about the importance of the role that children have in adult growth, an area that has been largely ignored, despite its obvious influence.”

Betty Casey in the Sunday Tulsa World Book Page

“Those who read ‘Growing With Your Child’ will come away with a deepened appreciation of the amazing journey we take when we become parents.”

L.A.Magazine

“I had the occasion to read Growing With Your Child while visiting our daughter and son-in-law, and our one-year-old grandson recently, and was able to see some of Elin Schoen’s themes in action. How wonderful to have a book about all that children can teach their parents!”

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

“Elin Schoen has given words to the huge, untold secret of parents everywhere: namely, that while we go about the consuming, frustrating, and incomparably rewarding business of raising our children, they are also raising us. In a world that so seldom recognizes the dignity and vital significance of parenting, Schoen reminds us of a truth too easily forgotten or missed: that raising our children well is, for those of us who do it, the most important job of our lives. Elin Schoen has written a wise, funny and beautiful book, full of revelations and inspiration.”

Joyce Maynard