FAMILYHOOD by Paul Reiser




If you are not a parent, you will probably not get much out of this book

Published in 2011.

Familyhood is Paul Reiser's follow-up to 1994's Couplehood, and 1997's Babyhood. Reiser is best-known for his television show Mad About You.

 If you have children you will certainly understand the big gap between the publication of Babyhood and Familyhood - life with children consumes your time. And, Paul is more than just happy about that fact, he is thrilled with it. 

Paul Reiser. Photo by 
Thomas Atilla Lewis
When he wrote this book he his two sons were ten and fifteen years old. I just read it and my two daughters are nine and fifteen years old. So much of this book rang true to me, especially his discussion on page 24 about how hard it is to just sit down and have time to talk with his wife. He writes, "This may seem to be a mighty meager aspiration - to simply talk to the person with whom you have committed to share your life - but I assure you it is not. It is, in fact, almost impossible."

 How true that is.

 Reiser talks about his own family as a kid and what he tries to do differently (he is very kind to his parents, he just would do some things differently) but most of the book is about how happy he is to have had his life overturned by becoming a dad and how much he loves his kids. Yes, it is kind of sappy, but Reiser celebrates that in this book and I can truly appreciate a man who just loves being a dad. 

 If you are not a parent, you will probably not get much out of this book, if you are you will recognize so many of your experiences in this quick, light read.

 I look forward to his book about being a grandparent which I am sure he will write about 15 years from now.

 I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

 This book can be found here on Amazon: Familyhood

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