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Fed Up with Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World
Slow Down. Reconnect.
It's Easier than You Think.
The hectic pace of everyday life can keep families constantly on the
go, but removing some of the frenzy is easy--if you just take a moment to
slow down. Hit the pause button on all of life's daily distractions and
reconnect with your family in familiar and exciting ways. Parenting and
family expert Susan Sachs Lipman shows you the enormous benefits of
having a slower paced, more connected family. Packed with simple,
affordable, and delightful games, crafts, and activities, Fed Up with
Frenzy will help you spend more distraction--free time with your
children. Slow down and reconnect with your family
• Creating your own outdoor theater
• Experimenting with kitchen science
• Playing nature games
• Making placemats from fall leaves
• And more!
"Fed Up with Frenzy is a blueprint for any family that feels
overwhelmed by the pace of contemporary life." --Darell Hammond, Founder
and CEO, KaBOOM!
"The heart of parenting is connection, but how
do parents and children connect when they are going a mile a minute in
different directions? Read this book, stop the frenzy, and reconnect."
--Lawrence J. Cohen, PhD, author of Playful Parenting
"Fed up with Frenzy is a welcome corrective to a society that has turned
childhood into a race to nowhere. With charm, energy and wit, Susan
Lipman serves up a treasure trove of ideas to bring joy and sanity back
to family life. Every parent needs a copy."--Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness and Under Pressure
It's Easier than You Think.
The hectic pace of everyday life can keep families constantly on the
go, but removing some of the frenzy is easy--if you just take a moment to
slow down. Hit the pause button on all of life's daily distractions and
reconnect with your family in familiar and exciting ways. Parenting and
family expert Susan Sachs Lipman shows you the enormous benefits of
having a slower paced, more connected family. Packed with simple,
affordable, and delightful games, crafts, and activities, Fed Up with
Frenzy will help you spend more distraction--free time with your
children. Slow down and reconnect with your family
• Creating your own outdoor theater
• Experimenting with kitchen science
• Playing nature games
• Making placemats from fall leaves
• And more!
"Fed Up with Frenzy is a blueprint for any family that feels
overwhelmed by the pace of contemporary life." --Darell Hammond, Founder
and CEO, KaBOOM!
"The heart of parenting is connection, but how
do parents and children connect when they are going a mile a minute in
different directions? Read this book, stop the frenzy, and reconnect."
--Lawrence J. Cohen, PhD, author of Playful Parenting
"Fed up with Frenzy is a welcome corrective to a society that has turned
childhood into a race to nowhere. With charm, energy and wit, Susan
Lipman serves up a treasure trove of ideas to bring joy and sanity back
to family life. Every parent needs a copy."--Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slowness and Under Pressure
- GenresParentingNonfiction
380 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2012
14 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
Susan Sachs Lipman
1 book4 followersSusan Sachs Lipman (Suz) is the author of Fed Up with Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World, which was named a 2012 Top 10 Parenting Trend by TIME magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Motherlode blog, the Christian Science Monitor‘s Modern Parenthood blog, and numerous other outlets. Suz is the Social Media Director for the Children & Nature Network, which encourages and supports people and organizations working around the world to reconnect children with nature.
A longtime Girl Scout leader, Suz also enjoys gardening, hiking, community volunteering, reading, soap crafting and food canning. She lives with her husband and daughter in Mill Valley, CA.
"Fed Up with Frenzy" and Suz's blog, Slow Family Online help busy parents reconnect with their families and their passions through fun activities in nature and at home.
A longtime Girl Scout leader, Suz also enjoys gardening, hiking, community volunteering, reading, soap crafting and food canning. She lives with her husband and daughter in Mill Valley, CA.
"Fed Up with Frenzy" and Suz's blog, Slow Family Online help busy parents reconnect with their families and their passions through fun activities in nature and at home.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 6, 2013
Worth a skim. Not sure I buy into the whole idea that doing stuff with your kids constitutes some newfangled "slow movement", but some nice old-fashioned games and activities are revived in this book.
April 16, 2013
When was the last time you blew a homemade bubble? Cooked in a box oven? Played pizza tag? Made a corn-husk doll? Fed Up with Frenzy contains detailed instructions so you can do all those fun things you may have forgotten about, and enjoy them with your kids.
My simple goal in writing this book was to help busy families have more fun together. Many families across the economic spectrum are stretched and stressed. Fed Up with Frenzy contains complete instructions for more than 300 indoor and outdoor games, crafts, activities and celebrations, many of which can be done in a short time and with little or no equipment, so that families can enjoy the time they do have together, either with a new activity or one they may have forgotten over time. There are also suggestions for simple daily rituals that can help bond even the busiest family, and ways to make the days more meaningful and less hectic in the first place.
Every family is different. I hope Fed Up with Frenzy helps yours find its own pace and enjoy deeper connection.
My simple goal in writing this book was to help busy families have more fun together. Many families across the economic spectrum are stretched and stressed. Fed Up with Frenzy contains complete instructions for more than 300 indoor and outdoor games, crafts, activities and celebrations, many of which can be done in a short time and with little or no equipment, so that families can enjoy the time they do have together, either with a new activity or one they may have forgotten over time. There are also suggestions for simple daily rituals that can help bond even the busiest family, and ways to make the days more meaningful and less hectic in the first place.
Every family is different. I hope Fed Up with Frenzy helps yours find its own pace and enjoy deeper connection.
December 23, 2013
I periodically reread the intro and "Slow parenting" sections of this book just as reminders and to inspire me as we go about our daily life. Many of the suggestions are simple enough to be easily accessible and implementable. Other crafts and activities Lipman outlines are detailed enough to be incorporated into a home school curriculum or for whiling away an entire rainy day. I particularly like the section about seasons and holidays as my young family thinks about starting our own traditions.
The anecdotes from the author's own family life are inspiring glimpses at the closeness that can grow when a family takes the time to just be, explore and enjoy each other's company. At 20 months old, my daughter is a little young for many of the activities in the book (though many of them are happily familiar yet previously forgotten to me from my own childhood), but we hope to incorporate more and more of them as we grow together.
This is a great book to use as a resource for some fresh ideas and remind myself to slow down.
The anecdotes from the author's own family life are inspiring glimpses at the closeness that can grow when a family takes the time to just be, explore and enjoy each other's company. At 20 months old, my daughter is a little young for many of the activities in the book (though many of them are happily familiar yet previously forgotten to me from my own childhood), but we hope to incorporate more and more of them as we grow together.
This is a great book to use as a resource for some fresh ideas and remind myself to slow down.
June 2, 2013
Okay, I knew that I would probably like this book because it was going with the same basic theory of parenting that I have (and try to convince Kevin to have) but I didn't know I would like it so much. Susan Sachs Lipman brings great suggestions to each chapter with clever tidbits that I enjoyed reading.
I've set this one aside so that I can use it during birthday party season at our house and I also think this would be a wonderful resource for anyone who works with kids - our own library programmers would find this one so inspiring and I know it would add some spice to the activities run by any Sunday school teacher or Girl Guide leader.
It brought old games back to my mind and made some excellent suggestions for ways to shake them up. The instructions for each activity were clear and realistic. It won't make it on any book club lists but I'll be suggesting this title to parents and grandparents in the biblio.
I've set this one aside so that I can use it during birthday party season at our house and I also think this would be a wonderful resource for anyone who works with kids - our own library programmers would find this one so inspiring and I know it would add some spice to the activities run by any Sunday school teacher or Girl Guide leader.
It brought old games back to my mind and made some excellent suggestions for ways to shake them up. The instructions for each activity were clear and realistic. It won't make it on any book club lists but I'll be suggesting this title to parents and grandparents in the biblio.
November 24, 2014
A book of crafty ideas to help connect / or reconnect, with your family. To me this book was similar to pinterest, only I turned the pages to search instead of scrolling. It will definitely be a book that I check out periodically or purchase for reference when I'm "fed-up" with surfing blogs and other websites for fun ideas. But, for now I think my note taking while skimming the book a second time have us "busy" for a while.
October 20, 2012
Fantastic collection of activities and ideas to slow things down and enjoy time with children and family. Will use this as a resource down the road.
January 19, 2014
The message of this book is clear: kids are too busy. We rush them from activity to activity with very little downtime once they are of school age. Lipman talks about "slow parenting." It is the idea that families need to slow down, unplug, and take advantage of things like nature, crafts, and imagination.
I appreciate the message, and I think that we mostly adhere to this idea. However, she does get a little preachy about how her way is the best way.
The book is loaded with activities for families to do in order to help slow them down. The kids and I did some of them, and they really were fun. We're pretty big into crafts and imaginative play, so I think it worked well with our current lifestyle.
The first few chapters are worth reading, and the rest of the book is filled with activities. Since we homeschool there is less rush from school to activity since our day is pretty flexible. I still felt that I gained some knowledge from the book.
It is probably a good book for parents with kids in preschool and kindergarten to read, because she does talk about the change in expectations from the early years to elementary school. If anything it will give you an idea what to expect.
I appreciate the message, and I think that we mostly adhere to this idea. However, she does get a little preachy about how her way is the best way.
The book is loaded with activities for families to do in order to help slow them down. The kids and I did some of them, and they really were fun. We're pretty big into crafts and imaginative play, so I think it worked well with our current lifestyle.
The first few chapters are worth reading, and the rest of the book is filled with activities. Since we homeschool there is less rush from school to activity since our day is pretty flexible. I still felt that I gained some knowledge from the book.
It is probably a good book for parents with kids in preschool and kindergarten to read, because she does talk about the change in expectations from the early years to elementary school. If anything it will give you an idea what to expect.
March 21, 2013
This book makes me very grateful for Overdrive. If I had purchased this, sight unseen, I would have been disappointed. It's not anything helpful for a crazy-busy family.
It's more of a crafty guide to homey activities...helpful for anyone who never was a child, never played a board game, and never heard a nursery rhyme. Or as a guide if you teach those things (if you have never heard of the game Charades and think Popsicle stick art is innovative).
As for me, I do not think glue is necessary for quality family experiences. Slowing the pace of hectic days? Yes, please. That's not what I found in this condescending, judgy book.
It's more of a crafty guide to homey activities...helpful for anyone who never was a child, never played a board game, and never heard a nursery rhyme. Or as a guide if you teach those things (if you have never heard of the game Charades and think Popsicle stick art is innovative).
As for me, I do not think glue is necessary for quality family experiences. Slowing the pace of hectic days? Yes, please. That's not what I found in this condescending, judgy book.
August 18, 2014
I didn't realize when I picked it up that it is mostly a list of ideas and activities to help you spend time with your children. Maybe I will pick it up again in a few years as a reference, rather then an informational read. There seemed to be some good ideas!
July 31, 2013
It was ok. I thought it was going to present alternative ideas to how to slow down, but it was basically a craft book- providing natural crafts and activities for children.
March 13, 2014
some good ideas to jumpstart family time without an electronic device or rushing around. not groundbreaking, just reminders we've all seen & heard before.
July 9, 2015
I expect a ideological view on life from this book, but rather it is just list of activities to do, to slow down. Hum...isn't at a total oxymoron!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews