Book Report: Achtung Baby by Sara Zaske

Alternative working title: Bringing up Baby (instead of Bebé)

Admittedly, I'm only half-way through, but this book is probably the best read to understand my life here in Berlin. It explains a lot of the cultural differences between the US and Germany's early education models and childrearing. If you know me well, you'll see where the author and I don't jive on parenting philosophies - ie constant worry, baby sleep training opinions, and mommy guilt. However, I imagine the majority of the audience in the US share these perspectives. With those criticisms aside, she provides some good background on the cultural phenomena that I have observed and never spent the time to really look into. I find the book to especially validate my reasons for living in Germany at this phase of my life which is a good segue into why I've been slacking from blogging. Three Reasons:

1. Carmen started Kita.

Sara Zaske mentions this "Eingewohnung" or warm-up period for Kita in her book. In summary, a parent doesn't just drop off the kid in childcare for a full-day on Day 1 (my preference). The first couple days, I was there for an hour, and then two. Then I left for 45 minutes, and an hour, etc. Right now we're working on Carmen napping there, which works about half the time. The big hurtle is getting her to use the potty there, instead of holding it for hours. Good segue to my other time-consuming project... 

2. We decided last minute to potty train Carmen before starting Kita. 

So, there's been a lot of this:

Side of the road potty-ing. I should really get commission for how many people I've recommended this potty and this book.

and this:

Favorite toy + water + Binkie = maybe sitting for two minutes total. ha!

I'm hoping more blogging will be on the horizon once Carmen is fully integrated into Kita. But for now, project #3 - preparing US taxes. Speaking of which, I should start working on those...