Hunt, Gather, Parent

What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans

De: Michaeleen Doucleff

Narrado por: Michaeleen Doucleff

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy, well-adjusted children. What can we learn from them?

“Hunt, Gather, Parent is full of smart ideas that I immediately wanted to force on my own kids.” —Pamela Druckerman, The New York Times Book Review

When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff becomes a mother, she examines the studies behind modern parenting guidance and finds the evidence frustratingly limited and often ineffective. Curious to learn about more effective parenting approaches, she visits a Maya village in the Yucatán Peninsula. There she encounters moms and dads who parent in a totally different way than we do—and raise extraordinarily kind, generous, and helpful children without yelling, nagging, or issuing timeouts. What else, Doucleff wonders, are Western parents missing out on?

In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their methods firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, Hunt, Gather, Parent helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"NPR reporter Michaeleen Doucleff narrates this audiobook—part memoir and part guide on contemporary parenting. She is honest, clear, and thoughtful as she presents a wide range of research on parenting theories from many cultures. For those seeking new ways to connect with or better understand their children, this will be a welcome listen. Doucleff creates the feeling she is in your kitchen, swapping stories and wisdom of the ages. This title is easy on the ears, and the chapters go by swiftly. For an author turned narrator, she is very confident as she presents ideas from diverse sources. From the Inuit to city dwellers, Doucleff informs as she entertains, regaling us with advice of how to keep the peace."

Hands down my favorite parenting book

Though it does reference some of my other favorites!
This book really appealed to me as an attachment parenting style babywearing cosleeping mom, who chose to do things differently from western culture during the baby phase because it just didn't feel right or natural to me. I feel like Western society has strayed far from our natural state in so many ways! Thank goodness that I lived in a time where I could find online resources about how other cultures managed the needs of their babies. But then, I ran into trouble once my babies weren't babies anymore!!! What was the most natural, intuitive way to parent toddlers and bigger kids? Certainly not the way I was raised! I was so lost, and struggled to discern deeply ingrained but unhealthy methods of parenting from my own childhood and the more appropriate methods I thought should have come naturally to me, but which I struggled to manifest. Then, enter this book. Just as it was with babywearing and cosleeping, everything rings true to my little parent heart. It feels right. Thank you for this guide! ❤

Woman travels the world for to better parent her daughter. ❤️

This book is about hunt and gather societies and how they parent. It is helpful! My favorite aspect of the book is knowing this woman, Michaeleen, who came from a terrible home environment felt in her heart that parenting didn’t have to be as terrible as it was for her at the time. This mother travels the world and finds that, yes, there is a better way!!! We can work together as a family instead of the parent spending all their time hovering over their child. Overall the approaches in the book produce a more peaceful environment for all, not just the child.

I find the first few chapters (up to chapter 5) to be repetitive and I almost want to skip through some of it because I had specific questions I wanted answered. If you find yourself feeling like I did, just trust that she will add lots of new material later on.

Michaeleen, my daughter’s name is Rosemary too and she acts a lot like your Rosy! Maybe it’s the name that makes our babies so head strong? 💪 ❤️

Let a professional narrate! Not a PhD in performance

Clearly never had a voice lesson or any formal training in narration, this author’s voice is EXTREMELY staccato. With no phrasing arc, varied intonation and off-kilter pauses and mid-sentence breaths, only an echo chamber would make this easy to listen to. Perhaps an adult steeped her in praise (gasp) along the way.

She provides great content in the book, but difficult to consume the information as it is presented. Someone with say-so needs to tell this toddler-voiced adult, “no”.

Thank you, Michaeleen and Rosy!!!

I finally have a parenting resource that teaches me strategies of leaving my childhood of yelling behind and to raise my children in a calm, helpful, and kind environment. This will take practice to put into action because I struggle controlling my emotions, but it has provided hope. I wish I would have had this when my children were Rosy's age. One suggestion that I and my fellow parent friends would LOVE is printed talking points or the sentence starters with the chapter summaries. How awesome would it be to have a quick resource that I could read over each day?! I purchased the book in order to make my own resource like this. Again, thank you from my family!

Beautiful and constructive way to raise children .

This book takes parenting to a new less stressful level. I will be implementing her ideas and strategies along with my other favorites!