Motivation number one for reading Things My Son Needs to Know About the World was that I adore the author, Fredrik Backman (e.g. Beartown, Anxious People). Motivation number two was that it was an opportunity to do some reflection on parenting. Perhaps there was less of number two than I had hoped for, but there was a ton of laughter throughout. Many passages were so funny I had to read them out loud to my wife through tears of laughter!
Backman structures the book as a series of letters to his son, starting after he’s born and into his toddler years. Each chapter has a core idea (sometimes a core pretty deeply buried), with a lot of often hilarious reflections on Backman’s anxieties and foibles as a parent – and a lot of reverence for his wife. As an example, one chapter is titled “What you need to know about IKEA,” which of course is and isn’t about IKEA. At the end of each chapter, he has some very short reflections or vignettes, often humorous and pithy. Here’s a cute example titled ‘Note to Self’: “Men coming back to work from paternity leave don’t like it if you welcome them back from their ‘vacation’.” (Personal note: I was on paternity leave. It wasn’t a vacation!)
There’s something incredibly playful about Backman’s style that I saw in Anxious People, which was written after this book.
It’s a quick read, only about 200 pages, and totally fun – even if you’re not looking for parenting advice.
Just Because I Liked It:
- I’m pretty fascinated that a mainstream Orthodox podcast like Behind the Bima (Rabbi Efrem Goldberg) would do a series on mental health, but more, an episode about psychedelics as a potential treatment for addiction or other forms of mental illness. And yet they did! It’s worth a listen here.
- I’m always a little weary of successful people telling everyone how to be successful, as the advice generally seems idiosyncratic. And yet, there’s often some wisdom there. I enjoyed this piece by Sam Altman of OpenAI. He’s very reflective, and, well, successful.