Assorted Thoughts

Here are some final thoughts about Alternadad that I wanted to get out before the week ends:

First, I was thinking back to very early in the novel, where Pollack is talking about the alternative families he knows, and he mentions a father and son who remain best friends despite the son being well into adulthood. (Sorry, I don’t have the book with me for an exact quotation.) But Pollack seemed impressed with this relationship, almost as if it occurred to him that hey, wouldn’t it be cool if my kid was friends with me in his thirties. This view turned me against him for awhile. I think that parents should be parents, not friends. I’m not saying that parents and children shouldn’t enjoy their time together, and spend time together, but I don’t think either should be the dominant social figures for the other.

Second, a note about being cool: I think it is commonly accepted that the cooler you try to be, the less cool you end up being. Pollack should take note, because his efforts sometimes seem a little desperate.

Third, I rocked out to classical music when I was little. So I’m afraid I can’t offer any congratulations to Pollack for teaching Elijah to like the kind of music that Pollack thinks of as objectively good. Little kids like to be crazy, and if you give them the chance, they will be. So its not taste, its being a kid. I’m not sure Pollack has accomplished anything that any other father has.

Fourth, I liked the last part of Alternadad much more than the first. For all my negativism, I don’t dislike Pollack any more than I disliked the other parents. He was often a pretty cute dad.

Ideas I had for subjects within the parenting genre:

Get a 6 year old to keep a journal. (How? I don’t know.) Have the narrative riff of this structure from the parent’s point of view. This would probably work best if they were living an already unusual lifestyle.

“How to Parent from Prison”

Being a parent during a war, in a refugee camp, or any event occasion where there is a great deal of external conflict. I wonder if in these cases the external conflict always outweighs the demands of parenting. If it doesn’t, this could be an interesting story. Hopefully there would also be humor. I’m envisioning a scene where a bomb explodes a block away, but the kid is more concerned with sticking grenade fragments up his nose.

I think a version of Perfect Madness where the anecdotes are drawn out for longer would be interesting. Maybe this would be a collection of mini-essays, like a combination of Perfect Madness and The Bitch in the House.