Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this book based on the high product rating in hopes that it would offer me practical solutions for my hectic life with a 3 year old, 2 year old, and 5 month old. I have to say, while reasonably well written, and easy to read, it is not at all helpful to two sorts of parents: 1. Those working with a limited budget (the author brags about her 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, vacations to Paris, etc) 2. Those who believe in attachment parenting (she offers a rigid schedule for babies. Sleeping through the night at 6 weeks? Really?) Her cleaning schedule is impractical for those with a smaller home. Cleaning the bathroom once a week might be practical in a home with four bathrooms. It is not in a home where 5 people share one bathroom. Her laundry advice of one time a week is also impractical with three little kids and small house where laundry makes a big mess if not washed and put away daily! She assumes that if you have a small child in the house, only one child is quite young and the others are older. While this is true of some people, it's certainly not my demographic! Her scheduling advice for young babies is alarming, dangerous, and unhealthy. She recommends spacing nursing sessions every 4 hours, which anyone with an ounce of common sense knows is very unsafe especially for little babies, and will lead to failure to thrive, malnourishment, and eating issues. She recommends a rigid nap schedule and I strongly suspect she used the brutal and anti-attachment "Crying-it-out" technique at an obscenely young age to achieve it. Bottom line: if you are wealthy, have a large home, have only one (or no!) young children, and practice detached parenting, this book will probably assist you in your organizational goals. If you're on a small budget, with a modest home, have more than 1 young child, and believe in treating babies and children with the respect they are due (and, um, not starving them in their formative months) keep looking, because this is not the book for you.