The Sh!t No One Tells You About Toddlers

August 3, 2015
Dais (The Sh!t No One Tells You: A Guide to Surviving Your Baby’s First Year) addresses the issues involved in raising toddlers, including sleep (for both child and parent), eating, potty training, meltdowns, and preschool. Dais, mother of a one-year-old and a three-year-old, can spot the humorous side of most situations, whether describing an exasperating—yet laugh-out-loud—trip to McDonald’s with her youngsters, or the “snot, tears, and bliss” of dancing with them in a pizza parlor. In addition to her own essays, Dais includes several brief pieces from a dozen friends (“Moms on the Front Lines”), along with occasional professional observations from two therapists. Frank and funny in her approach (the first chapter is entitled “You Suck at This”), she also deals soberly with such weighty matters as balancing work and family, reconciling parenting styles, and keeping marriages and partnerships together. The essays are often hilarious and entertaining, and readers will also find plenty of hands-on strategies for making raising toddlers just that little bit easier (e.g., avoid power struggles when it comes to meals; make sure each parent gets some time alone). Dais offers a commonsense yet comical view of the toddler years, which she wryly sums up as a “confusing cluster-f of a time.’’ Agent: Lilly Ghahremani and Stefanie von Borstel, Full Circle Literary.