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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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| English | |
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LOVE THAT BOY
What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent's Expectations
In LOVE THAT BOY, Ron Fournier, bestselling author, editor, and journalist, writes movingly of the outsize and crushing expectations that come from parents and with parenting today, through the lens of his relationship with his son.
When a parent's expectations come from the wrong place and are pressed into service of the wrong goals, kids get hurt. While a parent's love is unconditional, a parent's pride comes with caveats. Ron Fournier came to learn both of these facts late in his job as a father. “This is an important distinction,” he writes. “You love your kids no matter what, but you expect them to be something – smart or popular or successful; maybe a scholarship athlete who marries well and runs the family business…. Parenthood is the last chance to be the person we hoped to be. We want to get it right. We want it to be perfect, and that’s the problem.”
Fournier's son Tyler has mild Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that makes him socially awkward, and Fournier struggled to connect with him. So with a stiff nudge from his wife, Ron traveled the country with Tyler to various presidential sites and visited with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, in a series of "guilt" trips that help him appreciate Tyler for who he is, rather than what he wanted him to be.
In December 2012, Ron wrote a National Journal cover story about the challenges in his relationship with Tyler. It touched a nerve with parents everywhere, winning plaudits from Arianna Huffington, Joe Scarborough, Howard Kurtz, and many others. It was tweeted about by Jim Gaffigan this past fall. Jim has promised to support the book at publication, as have a slew of political journalists and commentators.
LOVE THAT BOY is a multi-layered story about one father's journey to acceptance. It is a compelling and honest look at the universal pitfalls of modern parenting. And on a broader level, it's a story about every parent's stratospheric expectations for their children--where and why the dreams are made, how these aspirations distort childhood, and what ways they can be properly channeled.
Ron Fournier is the senior political columnist and editorial director of National Journal. He previously worked at the Associated Press for 20 years, most recently as Washington Bureau chief, where he covered the state legislature and presidential politics. Fournier also served as a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, where he cowrote the New York Times bestseller Applebee's America. He holds the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for coverage of the 2000 elections, and he is a four-time winner of the prestigious White House Correspondents' Association Merriman Smith Memorial Award. Fournier appears several times per month on such programs as MSNBC's Morning Joe, FOX News' Special Report and On the Record, and CNN's Inside Politics and The Lead. He has appeared as a panelist on Meet the Press and This Week, several NPR shows, and SiriusXM Radio.
Fournier's son Tyler has mild Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that makes him socially awkward, and Fournier struggled to connect with him. So with a stiff nudge from his wife, Ron traveled the country with Tyler to various presidential sites and visited with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, in a series of "guilt" trips that help him appreciate Tyler for who he is, rather than what he wanted him to be.
In December 2012, Ron wrote a National Journal cover story about the challenges in his relationship with Tyler. It touched a nerve with parents everywhere, winning plaudits from Arianna Huffington, Joe Scarborough, Howard Kurtz, and many others. It was tweeted about by Jim Gaffigan this past fall. Jim has promised to support the book at publication, as have a slew of political journalists and commentators.
LOVE THAT BOY is a multi-layered story about one father's journey to acceptance. It is a compelling and honest look at the universal pitfalls of modern parenting. And on a broader level, it's a story about every parent's stratospheric expectations for their children--where and why the dreams are made, how these aspirations distort childhood, and what ways they can be properly channeled.
Ron Fournier is the senior political columnist and editorial director of National Journal. He previously worked at the Associated Press for 20 years, most recently as Washington Bureau chief, where he covered the state legislature and presidential politics. Fournier also served as a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, where he cowrote the New York Times bestseller Applebee's America. He holds the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for coverage of the 2000 elections, and he is a four-time winner of the prestigious White House Correspondents' Association Merriman Smith Memorial Award. Fournier appears several times per month on such programs as MSNBC's Morning Joe, FOX News' Special Report and On the Record, and CNN's Inside Politics and The Lead. He has appeared as a panelist on Meet the Press and This Week, several NPR shows, and SiriusXM Radio.
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Book
Published 2016-04-12 by Harmony/Crown |
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Book
Published 2016-04-12 by Harmony/Crown |