I give The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt 5 out of 5 birds. I was hovering between 4 and 5 but decide to up it because I’ve seen in a difference in how I process information since reading it. There were so many quotes from it that I want to memorize and repeat throughout my life. One of the major things I got from this book is that words are NOT violent. I shouldn’t be scared of your words, they shouldn’t increase my anxiety or decrease my safety. They are words and I get to choose how to process them. One of the many topics in this was that we are creating such a “safe” world for our children that they are never given the opportunity to mess up and deal with the consequences. The example they gave was the peanut allergy analogy. I loved it. It’s altered some of the ways I parent and confirmed me in my push to make my kids be independent and experience success AND failure.
One of the other areas of my life that I felt like this book was monumental in shifting my perception was politics. No one can deny the last few years have been INSANE . Both parties have put in overtime in bickering. I realized I was taking the words of each side and taking them as a type of violence and not thinking about it rationally. There can be GOOD people on both sides. I would honestly say everyone should read this before the next election, before you go to college, if you’re a parent- it’s changed my parenting style a ton- and if you’re the one putting trigger* before your social media posts.
I felt passionate about this book and have so much to say in such little time, so I’m sorry if this seems jumbled. However, if you read it and want to discuss it, I’d love to.
Mrs Birds Words 
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