It’s hard to believe that this is technically the last post of the Messy Summer Reading Club. I really hope that you found something helpful for your reading life in this season. And with this last one, it’s time for a plot twist.
When my kids were young, and I read MUCH less, I would pass the summer reading display and feel an ache. I wanted to read beach reads. I wanted to sit next to a body of water and sink into a good story. But I was in a phase of life that involved little people being determined to hurt themselves, especially next to water. They really knew how to ruin a good time. Looking back, it wasn’t just summer reading; it was reading all year long. My reading life was dormant.
Eventually that ache pushed me to find ways to make books a part of my life again. It started slowly, and eventually my reading life grew. Reading is now a crucial component of my sanity in all seasons.
With that, writing about reading started to weave its way more intentionally here. I wanted parents to know that they can build a reading life that is joyful, even if it’s quite different from what they expected. And more than just doing the act of reading, it can also be meaningful. Reading has something to add to our lives. And now I really want to get into it with you.
I’ve been hinting at a newsletter renovation for months now. It’s time for a new name, look, frame, and, perhaps, meaning?
A Wonderful Mess is becoming Parent Lit, a place where parenthood wanders the book stacks.
Meaning-making is what we do with the material of life. It’s personal, and yet a universal process, shaping our day-to-day and influencing our perceptions of the past, present, and future. I was recently reminded of where my interest in meaning-making started. I was discussing my graduate school dissertation on a playground, as one often does. Many moons ago, I explored how kids make meaning of parental cancer. At the time, I was interested in how they understood it, what it meant for them in the moment, and then how that influenced coping. Although there are patterns of how children experience stress and uncertainty, they also bring their unique perspectives. And with unique variability comes many different trajectories. Pairing the data of unique individuals with the bigger patterns found in broader research is the beauty of having data in many flavors. The ability to zoom in and out is what I would call meaningful use. It’s nuance. It’s not always easy and clean. It’s complicated.
The concept of meaning-making is still of an interest, even though it looks different than those graduate school years. There is meaning-making happening all throughout your parenthood. The who you were before you had kids, are now, and will become. It’s so utterly messy.
Capturing the shift of this newsletter has been hard to describe, and any article about writing a strong newsletter would tell you that is not good. You need a digital elevator pitch that is tight. One should be able to tell people what it is succinctly. But I can’t say this newsletter is only about how to read when you have young kids. And it’s not only essays on the mess of parenthood. There is a lot more than book recommendations. It’s a little bit about those things and something else, too. It’s also about, you may have guessed…meaning-making.
It’s about where the material, in all its many forms, of your reading life shows up, guides, nourishes, confuses, replenishes, and generates questions.
The picture book you’ve read so many times you can recite it with your eyes closed (and sometimes you do)
That stack of books you’ve been meaning to get to so you learn how “to do this parent thing,” but you are just too busy parenting to get to them
That romance you read to take a break
That picture book that made you tearful at story time because it may have just summed up life better than any therapist you’ve ever seen
That middle grade read that reminded you we are all still just trying to figure it out
That book that has made you question everything you thought you knew
The cookbook that brought you a meal that was nourishing and satisfying while your kid ate Goldfish crackers
That childhood favorite that makes you cringe now
The book that you ignore your kids to finish
That book that cracked open your grief just under the surface
The book that taught you more about reptiles than you ever wanted to know
The book that gave you permission to be the parent you already are
It’s all parent lit and more.
But it’s not just about the books. We’re also diving into:
The pressure, questions, delight, exhaustion, and frustration of Tuesday
The parenting questions that bring us to search “books about…”
Trying to find just a little time to take a break, but what is a break?
Testing out the advice on the page in real life
And so much more…
We will just have to see where else we go.
Welcome to Parent Lit. I am taking the next couple of weeks to get everything shipshape. The first official essay will be in your inbox Tuesday, September 15th.
In the meantime, notice all the parent lit in your life. We’ve got a lot to talk about my friends.
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