Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik

". . . unusual in its take on parenting . . ."

Mayim Bialik, best known for Blossom in the 1990s and now for Amy Farrah Fowler, PhD of The Big Bang Theory, writes about parenting, elimination communication, slings, breast feeding, and poop.

After seeing Mayim Bialik grow up on television as Blossom and more recently date the awkward know-it-all Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, it seems a bit of stretch to read about her trials, tribulations, and triumphs as a parent in Beyond the Sling. It should not be surprising since Mayim quit acting to go to college and get a PhD in neuroscience focusing on hormones in the brain that regulate conception, birth, and lactation. It is after all her field of study.

What Beyond the Sling offers is a look at a more natural type of parenting free of the expectations and artificial milestones that currently serve as markers of a healthy child. The book concentrates on breast feeding, sleeping with your children, elimination communication (EC), and parenting without the rigid rules and traditions that have grown up over the past 200 years. What makes Beyond the Sling special is the way in which Bialik serves up the information with personal experience and a bit of humor. She does not claim to be the guru or parenting or breast feeding and chronicles her mistakes and fears as well as her triumphs.

I found the revelations to be refreshing. Bialik mirrored some of my own experiences, good and bad, with raising my own children and I wish Beyond the Sling had been available when I had my children nearly 40 years ago, or at least trusted my instincts instead of caving to pressure from my parents to do it the right way. It would have saved my children and me a lot of difficulty.

Beyond the Sling is unusual in its take on parenting, at least in the circles where I have traveled, and gave me much food for thought. This book goes to my son to help him raise his twins. While he may not follow all the advice in the book, it will at least give him workable options that will help him and his children form a closer relationship, which is what attached parenting is all about. I thoroughly enjoyed the breezy, no nonsense style, humor, information and resources.

Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell