Book Review – Gummi Bears Should Not Be Organic by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor.

5 out of 5 stars.

I would like to thank Gallery Books for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in return for an open and honest review.

Bless this woman and her open, sarcastic and honest look on life and parenting. It isn’t some magical journey or a competition and I do like a good book that reminds us of this.

Yes I had to read this book in stages as I couldn’t cope with it all at once. But that is me and parenting books in general. Just smile and nod, take the occasional mental note and then go off and do your own thing. The great thing about this book is that is exactly what she encourages you to do! Possibly you need to be as fluent in sarcasm, cynicism and irony as I am to get that. I think the heavy use of these is what makes it such an enjoyable book.

However! I will say I was very disappointed with her blasé and blanket comment about orthorexia. Yes, she did say we needed to pace ourselves before we complained. 😉 But it does comes across that she’s read the kneejerk blogs that harp on about this being the mental illness of the food fanatics. Rather than reading the actual medical journals this misinformation has sprouted from by the author misreading it.

Excuse my vent, but orthorexia is a mental illness. And not something I want to be labelled as my family prefer and enjoy organic foods, I also shop local and support my farmers and make most of my foods from scratch and I consider myself a foodie. This mental disorder being bandied about as a way to pick on the healthy eaters who seem a little OTT to those wanting to justify their junk food intake is actually on the same level as anorexia and bulimia. Please let me just deal with my disappointment for needing happy pills to deal with my “mild” depression and anxiety issues without labelling me with further mental disorders simply because I have an aversion to sugary, highly processed breakfast cereal and would rather allow my kids to make their own bowls of organic rolled oats topped with organic fruit and drowned in raw honey. I can assure you they’re still getting that insanely unhealthy sugar rush.

Loved the ‘mummy friends’ ad and would apply as we fit in so many ways… but sadly like crafts, don’t watch real housewives and, worst of all, don’t own a pool. Yeah like my comments about orthorexia would be ignored if I had a pool.

All in all I LOVED this book, have been recommending this book as a great guide to parenting and all in all think it gives us all a good reality check to see that yes we stuff things up, yes we’re not pristine, perfect and wholly sane… but who cares, were not alone, everyone is like that so just go with it!

And finally, she’s right about gummi bears! Just let your kid eat junk from time to time and accept it as a part of life. Not everything we give them needs to be wholesome, healthy and positive karma building. Our lives weren’t and look how we turned out.

Now to look into this thing about sippy cups and chardonnay.

Until next time,

Janis. XXOO