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Summary: Let's spread the word
Review: An honest appraisal of the pressures on families, including the ways in which Pipher's own profession has contributed to the devaluation of family ties. Pipher is not strident, but she is very clear on the flaws of our culture as well as the consequences of choices we make in what we value and how we spend our time . She doesn't blame parents for everything. She gives many examples of the way in which outside pressures and the lack of a supporting culture can tear families apart. She offers principles and practical guidelines to help families bond and shelter each other while still giving each other room to grow. A far more hopeful book than "Reviving Ophelia".
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Summary: Thank you, Dr Pipher, for writing this book
Review: Dr Pipher focuses on families' strengths and resources, and refuses to label them "dysfunctional." Often, we simply need to rethink our use of time and technology. For me, reading this book was like taking a deep, calming breath and seeing my precious family in a new light.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, Dr Pipher, for writing this book
Review: Dr Pipher focuses on families' strengths and resources, and refuses to label them "dysfunctional." Often, we simply need to rethink our use of time and technology. For me, reading this book was like taking a deep, calming breath and seeing my precious family in a new light.
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Summary: a book full of practical advice that re-affirms the family
Review: I heard Mary speak in Calgary last year. The thousands of us who were there were riveted. As a high school teacher who is on the "front lines" witnessing the disenfranchisement of our youth, her book holds hope for everyone--if only everyone could read it. I recommend all her books--but this is less clinical than Reviving Ophelia. After hearing her speak, and reading the book, I have continued to make positive changes in my home. I am a single parent, but we have numerous traditions that I know my kids will cherish when they are older! This should be another one of those books we send home with the baby from the hospital!
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Summary: Timely and Important: A Must Read For All Parents
Review: I picked up this book after reading the equally important "Reviving Ophelia." "The Shelter of Each Other" is an important guidebook on how to get your family back from the clutches of American junk media, job stress and day care. This book is ungently needed by any parent with factory farmed kids who spend their days with nannies, in day care, and in front of the tube watching garbage videos. But it is equally useful to involved parents who want to be one step ahead of the corrupting and damaging influences of life in America today. Read it and heal.
Rating:
Summary: Timely and Important: A Must Read For All Parents
Review: I picked up this book after reading the equally important "Reviving Ophelia." "The Shelter of Each Other" is an important guidebook on how to get your family back from the clutches of American junk media, job stress and day care. This book is ungently needed by any parent with factory farmed kids who spend their days with nannies, in day care, and in front of the tube watching garbage videos. But it is equally useful to involved parents who want to be one step ahead of the corrupting and damaging influences of life in America today. Read it and heal.
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Summary: Reviving the notion of "family."
Review: In her 1996 work, Dr. Pipher decries what cultural conservatives like myself have known for at least 25+ years, and that is our popular culture is at war with the family. Because of our desire to be "open" and not repressed about sex and sexuality, because we don't want to do anything that would have a "chilling effect" on free speech, and because advertising has mercilessly and shamelessly propagated the religon of consumerism, while pop-psychology makes converts to a humanist, man-centered existentialism that places the emphasis on "self-esteem" over responsibility, this is why we have the rot we see today.Dr. Pipher was right on the mark in her observation that people develop "relationships" with media figures, to the detriment of themselves and society. One only has to look at the circulation figures for magazines like "People," "The National Enquirer," and the other tabloids for proof. People talk about the stars of WWF as if they have known them all their lives; the latest celebrity gossip vies with actual news stories on the evening news for headline coverage. Because of our inate desire to belong and to fellowship, we crave human contact. Yet we live in a culture where most of us don't even know who our next door neighbors are. A lot of the criticism of Dr. Pipher's book on this site has been picayune and childish. You don't need to be a cultural anthropoligist, or have an advanced degree in family therapy to recognize that our society is in trouble. The American Family is in the crosshairs, under relentless assault. Dr. Mary Pipher is to be highly commended for this book, which like her earlier work "Reviving Ophelia" correctly takes aim at our popular culture for its contribution to the destruction of decency in our society. This book would benefit all families. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Every family should read this book
Review: It was an excellent book on families struggling and how they made the family structure work.
Rating: 
Summary: Good ideas, but over-stated
Review: Many of the ideas in this book have some validity. I knew most of the people in the neighborhood where I grew up, but feel much more alienated from my neighbors now. There is more transiency in where people live, whether they're affluent or struggling economically. I also see Dr. Pipher's point about the media and the materialistic values it teaches. I think that both points are over-stated though. The children in my current neighborhood seem to know each other, and to know many of the adults as well. It's the adults who know each other less. If television is allowed to be a baby-sitter, it will try to fill a void regarding value-teaching. But, if television-watching is done as a family, and values are discussed then and at other times, television's influence becomes greatly reduced. Many authors find a good idea, fall in love with it, and, without intending to, end up selling it as "THE ANSWER." I think Dr. Pipher has fallen victim to this trend, which is encouraged, to some extent, by some publishers (books sell better if they tell you THE ANSWER). "The Shelter of Each Other" is good reading and contains many valid, if over-stated points. Those pearls should be incorporated into one's approach to living and to changing the world around one. This book is not THE ANSWER, but might be part of the answer to many problems we face.
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, but over-stated
Review: Many of the ideas in this book have some validity. I knew most of the people in the neighborhood where I grew up, but feel much more alienated from my neighbors now. There is more transiency in where people live, whether they're affluent or struggling economically. I also see Dr. Pipher's point about the media and the materialistic values it teaches. I think that both points are over-stated though. The children in my current neighborhood seem to know each other, and to know many of the adults as well. It's the adults who know each other less. If television is allowed to be a baby-sitter, it will try to fill a void regarding value-teaching. But, if television-watching is done as a family, and values are discussed then and at other times, television's influence becomes greatly reduced. Many authors find a good idea, fall in love with it, and, without intending to, end up selling it as "THE ANSWER." I think Dr. Pipher has fallen victim to this trend, which is encouraged, to some extent, by some publishers (books sell better if they tell you THE ANSWER). "The Shelter of Each Other" is good reading and contains many valid, if over-stated points. Those pearls should be incorporated into one's approach to living and to changing the world around one. This book is not THE ANSWER, but might be part of the answer to many problems we face.
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