Toilet Trained for Yale: Adventures in 21st Century Parenting

From Mozart played to the womb to French art in the nursery, from toddler yoga to post-toddler tutoring for SAT's, too many parents today are obsessed with creating super kids. As a result, America suddenly has a bumper crop of children who have turned the Peter Pan syndrome on its head and flown away from childhood.Blending sharp observation, memories of his own offbeat parenting experience, incredulous reporting, and uproarious flights of fancy, Ralph Schoenstein takes readers on an exploration of this absurd trend that is both hilarious and chilling. Along the way, he stumbles upon earnest mothers attempting to elevate fetus IQ at a university designed to deliver "the ultimate head start." He witnesses the organized teaching of reading to children too small to hold a book in their hands, and imagines the bumper sticker of the not-so-distant future: "My Kid's an Honor Student, Your Kid's a Loser." Throughout it all, he cringes at a nation of parents who now want their children to hit the delivery room running.With wondrous wit, deep perception, and sweet appreciation for his own ancient and unstructured childhood, Schoenstein turns these and other merry new perversions of parenting into comic gems, continuing his reign as the man Kirkus called "the undisputed king of writing on parenthood." A lacerating work of social criticism that will make you laugh out loud, Toilet Trained for Yale is the funniest serious book you'll ever read.