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The Fabulous Mum's Handbook by Grace Saunders (view source)
Revision as of 11:07, 6 May 2018
, 11:07, 6 May 2018no edit summary
Both the food and clothes chapters are where Saunders' background as a London fashion journalist shows the most and thus the ones where I was most tempted to check my alien from another planet credentials.
The Food section covers advice for pregnancy and baby-rearing and on one hand, it's rather sensible in comparison to obsessively puritanical approach of books like the American [[''What to Expect When You're Expecting]]''. This is to be applauded. On the other, it's full of sweeping statements like "benefits of no pesticides go without saying" (erm, they don't actually: there is no reliable studies that show that tiny pesticide residues present in food have any adverse effect on health and that organic food is healthier) and advises taking vitamins and supplements while pregnant and after birth, which (apart from the folic acid) is nor recommended in the UK for normal, healthy women and which fuels the market in unnecessary nutritional supplements. The advice from the guru is definitely better than the main text in this section (though also refers to mythical superfoods). The main problem with the food chapter is less its food-faddism (organic is, after all tastier and eco-friendly) but the fact that the suggestions take no budgeting demands into account: not many mothers live in a world in which organic salads and tuna steaks can be the order of the day.
The Clothes section is afflicted by similar problems as the food chapter: anybody who lists H&M and Accessorize as a source of cheep and cheerful stuff must have a seriously unrealistic view of normal budgets (and I am basing this opinion not only on my behaviour but also on what London-office-working friends buy too). My main problem with the clothes chapter was personal though: I found the initial, sincere expose about how incredibly important clothes are to our identity, self esteem and well-being rather laughable. But then, I dislike clothes shopping and fashion (I quite like having reasonable clothes, ideally the same for the rest of my life) and thus the suggestion that my first few baby-free hours would be well spend buying clothes on the high street seemed like a dreadful joke. But if clothes are important for you and you think about them in terms of 'outfits' that you 'put together' and 'accessorize' and try to have something called 'personal style' and find shopping for them fun rather than chore, this will probably be your favourite section.