Book Review: Minimalist Parenting by Christine Koh and Asha Dornfest

There’s something very special about picking up a book to read and knowing the authors. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s one of my favorite things about becoming a blogger, it’s seeing your fellow blogging friends accomplish amazing and great things… like publishing a parenting book.

I have been friends with Christine Koh (blogger extraordinaire – Boston Mamas, designer and freelance writer) for years. She was one of the first blogger’s I met in this “world” of blogging and I just instantly fell in love with her passion, her intellect and her humor. When she told me she was writing a book with Asha Dornfest, I was ecstatic for her… this was such a natural progression of her and I couldn’t wait for it to be published so I could read it!

Finally… Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More by Doing Less arrived at my door and I literally devoured it!

In Minimalist Parenting, Christine and Asha share a refreshing and informative narrative to navigating through parenthood. Let’s face it, it’s not easy – especially in this day and age – and I love how Christine and Asha share how to tune into your family’s unique values and priorities and confidently identify the activities, stuff, information, and people that truly merit space in your life.

Having 4 sons, I truly appreciated the approach that Christine and Asha took as to sharing unique and personal experiences from their own childhoods and their own parenthood adventures. I felt connected to them and felt like I was listening to 2 girlfriends chatting and sharing and giving advice.

The beauty of this book is that it shows a minimalist approach to parenthood, something I don’t always do. I literally read this book with my yellow highlighter, flagging sections that I need to re-read and comeback to.

I don’t want to give the whole book away, but I do want to call out some of my FAVE parts of this book, just to give you a sneak peek and an idea of how incredible and useful and wonderful the information is throughout the book…

I LOVED Chapter 3 – Time Management Tricks for Minimalists – because this is something I really need to work on. I adored the part “Pause Before Saying Yes.” I’m such a YES girl, I say YES to everything and everyone and then find myself kicking myself afterwards. I loved reading “reserve your energy for things that make you feel happy and excited.” reading those words completely put things into perspective for me. It’s something I needed to read and something I needed to hear. Also the “Give Your Kids Chores” section… I always had chores when I was a child, I just haven’t adopted this same philosophy with my own sons yet, and I don’t know why. It will make my life so much easier to have them helping me put laundry away and clearing and cleaning the table. Especially being pregnant, I need the extra help. A chore chart is being made this weekend! 🙂

In Chapter 6 – Financing Your Minimalist Life – I was anxious to read the tips and strategies from Christine and Asha. We just started to get “smart” with money about 2 years ago. For the first time ever, we started to save and see where our money was going. It was eye-opening for us. I personally loved hearing in this chapter, how to teach your kids about money. It’s something that I feel is so important to their financial future in understanding how one has to work for money and be smart where it’s spent. And you don’t want to miss on page 88, Six Ways to Save Hundreds a Year!

In chapter 11 – Meal Planning for Real Life – I knew this chapter had the “READ AUDREY MCCLELLAND” tag all over it. We’re HORRIBLE at meal planning. As smart as we are now at saving money and not making frivolous purchases, we’re still not good at the eating home game. We get so busy in our lives, that it becomes “easier” to grab a bite out and then I see $80 go in a snap of the fingers! I needed to read the information on planning meals… bringing the family into these choices and making smart (and healthy) ones for our family.

I’m telling you… I can’t say enough good things about Minimalist Parenting, it’s such a fascinating and helpful book for parents. Again, I just love the minimalist approach. Anyone can read this and make this work for your life.

Bravo to Christine and Asha for writing such a wonderful and delightful and helpful book!