Navigate the challenges of parenting with humor and wisdom in ‘Conversations with My Daughter’ by Robert Veres—a guide for every stage of life, sprinkled with laughs and sage advice.
Our Conversations with My Daughter Book Review
I love a book that can take parenting and make it a hilarious journey. Conversations with My Daughter by Robert Veres is a book that packs a good laugh into each chapter.
Conversations with My Daughter is a tongue-in-cheek antidote to the recent “Tiger Mom” phenomenon, laden with witty banter between a father and his daughter. It captures the more current and controversial fads from a father’s perspective through his own take on the over-structured, under-recognized task of raising children.
“For 200 pages, you see the Tiger Dad hanging on by his fingernails as his daughter takes him on the ride of his life, and somehow they both survive and turn out all right in the end despite the father’s best efforts,” Veres says. “Finally, there’s a book that is filled with truth, but which doesn’t contain a single word that you have to take seriously.”
Veres captures parenting in a more relaxed manner than self-proclaimed ‘tiger mom’ Ana Chua. I could see my husband in a lot of the chapters (though I think Veres is far more clever than my husband). Veres tackles big questions like “Should children be allowed to send out for pizza at 2:00am on a school night?” and smaller ones like “Is a visit from the health inspector a sign that the daughter should do a more thorough job of cleaning her room?”
It’s all in good fun as this dad takes on bedtimes and boyfriends while raising a children who seem to spend every moment scheming to find the most effective way to foil a parent’s best intention. It’s a hilarious take on parenting regardless of whether you are the Mom or Dad.
“This book is really aimed at a niche target audience of individuals who actually have children but didn’t receive the operating manual that goes along with them and other individuals who, themselves might have been children,” Veres says.
I loved the chapter title Candy Tantrum. It’s about taking his daughter to the store to get the items on Mom’s grocery list. Then the daughter tries to sneak in candy. He says, “no” and we all know how this story unfolds. I was laughing my guts out!
This is a great book for anyone who has children or is thinking of having children. It’s an honest account of what they don’t tell you about parenting.
About the Author:
Robert Veres has been an editor, writer, speaker, and commentator in the financial planning profession since 1982. He publishes Inside Information, an online resource for independent advisors and financial planners. He is also the author of two novels, Song of the Universe and The Root of All Evil. Veres lives in Pacific Beach, Calif. He is the father of five children, a subject which comes up often in his psychological counseling sessions.
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