Book Review: Honeycomb Kids

I found Honeycomb Kids: Big Picture Parenting for a Changing World ... and to Change the World on the shelves of recent acquisitions at our library.  The endorsements and book descriptions on the back and inside the front cover hooked me.  It says the author, Anna M. Campbell, is "a sustainable living educator, public speaker and beekeeper who has helped thousands of people discover the joy of sustainable living.  She and her husband are having loads of fun and facing lots of challenges raising their kids 'honeycomb' style."

The premise of this book is good.  We live in a rapidly changing world where our future holds many questions.  My husband and I are equally concerned about the lives our children will be asked to lead when the current economy looks shaky and politicians and big companies are more interested in the bottom-line than in the health and well-being of individuals.  Like the author, we wish to do our best to prepare our children for the future.  We wish to raise citizens, instead of consumers.

The author presents her ideas in the context of examples from beekeeping.  She encourages the reader to confront the "stark realities our children are confronting now (the power of advertising, instant gratification, poor nutrition, toxins, terrorism, etc") and will confront in the coming years (global population growth, technology issues, resource depletion and more)."  I agreed with everything presented in the first section of this book, which presented the big issues.  Our world is indeed facing a variety of challenges like population growth, climate changes, food shortages, energy supply issues, health issues (like the genetically modified corn I mentioned in a recent post), and technology-driven issues.

It was when I got to the second half of the book, the primer for raising 'honeycomb kids,' where I began to feel both overwhelmed and a bit put-off.  On the one hand, I began to hold my own family up against these examples of endless conversation starters and recognized my own shortcomings in preparing my family to live sustainable lives or lives free of the traps of persistent use of technology. 

It brought to mind many families that I admire.  These families have made drastic changes in their diet (focusing primarily on raw foods and avoiding processed, packaged foods) - a goal I embrace but seem to find difficult to fully put into practice.  These families encourage their children to take responsibility for benefiting their community - another thing I would like to do, but somehow fail to really pull off with my own children.  These families also respond to life's issues as a never-ending opportunity for conversation about how one should live.  I fail and fail again.

But, the book also seemed quite unrealistic.  I don't think many families fall into that ideal frame.  Most families, like mine, recognize the areas for improvement, but are also realistic about expectations.  This book lacked a healthy dose of realistic expectations.  My biggest beef had to be the endless suggestions offered at the end of each chapter.

I'll give you an example of several of the ones I felt went over-the-top:

- "Have an electronic-game free month at least a couple of times a year.  Leave your children to their own devices without their devices!  Plan some fun family activities.  After they go cold turkey and the whining stops, notice the changes in your children and the mood of the house - you might just make it an electronic-game free year after that!"

- "Take a month off to travel as a family to find out who you all are free of the influences of TV, computers, work, school and peers.  Don't head to a fancy resort and throw the kids in childminding; travel frugally within a three-day radius of your home.  Try rock climbing, gold fossicking, hiking.... Visit all the libraries you come across.  Along the way apprentice your family to an indigenous person, woodworker, farmer or artist.  Volunteer at old peoples' homes and animal shelters and see where the road takes you."

All I can say is "Yeah, right!  Dream on!"  Plus, the suggestions began to take on an air of arrogance.  The author seemed to imply that now that she had altered her own way of living and parenting, she had found life's solution and it was her duty to share that with the world-at-large so that everyone else could benefit from her boundless knowledge of improvements that can be made.  It is not that the suggestions for conversation starters were bad, it was just that the presentation was a bit offensive and over-the-top.

I still hope to do a better job at preparing my children for a changing world.  I will look for areas where I can find teachable moments.  But, this book, in the end, left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a lingering question: "Who takes care of her bees while she is gone from the home for a month teaching her children to bond and develop greater community perspectives?"