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| Three-Martini Family Vacation: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting | 
 enlarge | Author: Christie Mellor
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $6.15
You Save: $6.80 (53%)
Buy New/Used from $4.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  (9 reviews)
Sales Rank: 607416
Format: Bargain Price
Language: English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.5
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.874
ASIN: B0014JQ7LW
Publication Date: May 3, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Chill the glasses! The author of the wildly successful Three-Martini Playdate is back with more irreverent and useful advice about life with children. Wickedly funny essays offer helpful advice on harnessing the energy of toddlers-gone-wild: on vacation, out to dinner, even just when grandmother stops by for a visit. Parents will relearn the art of traveling, socializing, and eating out like adults . . . sometimes with well-behaved children in tow. In dozens of short, kicky chapters like Cocktail Parties: Actually for Grown-ups! and The Theme Park Vacation: A Last Resort, Christie Mellor gently reminds parents that family vacations can truly be fun.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Let Me Offer Another Hint to Anybody Still in Need of One July 28, 2008
Despite the scholarly title, Three-Martini Family Vacation: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting, is NOT an expert approved, exhaustively tested, lawyer vetted guidebook for the raising of children. Rather, it is a HUMOR book, one woman's personal reaction to a certain type of parent that we are ALL familiar with while TRYING to be funny. (If you don't know of any parents who fit these descriptions that MIGHT be because YOU do.) Thus, Ms. Mellor makes use of exaggeration, irony, and even deliberately trying to shock. Chances are that if you find yourself getting mad, you are supposed to be laughing instead.
Now does this mean there is NO useful advice contained within? Au contraire! However, you WILL have to glean such nuggets from among the jokes. Teetotalers should not overreact to "advice" to turn every child activity possible into an excuse for drinking alcohol because I think even Ms. Mellor would concede that parents who take nothing else from her book than an excuse to drink more often have missed the point. Conservatives should not overreact to politically correct rants against the commercialization of holidays because I think even Ms. Mellor would concede that the problem is more with overindulgent parents than it is with EVIL corporations.
However, Ms. Mellor's most important advice is more general. First, your children like all children, need to be TAUGHT how to behave, and if you do a bad enough job of it, your children will suffer the consequences all the rest of their lives. Second, while parenting is arguably a lifetime job, the heavy duty work is a temporary one. If you make your children too much of an obsession, you will be totally lost when they finally leave home, and you might not have any friends (or spouse) left by then.
Note: Ms. Mellor begins her parenting course in The Three-Martini Playdate: A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting while Were You Raised by Wolves?: Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood is a remedial course for children whose parents failed to apply the lessons of the first two books. As for the OOP We Were Here First, Kid and the not yet in print You look fine, Really, your guess is as good as mine.
Still snortingly funny November 10, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you've ever had the back of your seat on a plane or train repeatedly kicked by a child whose parents seem to think that Junior is just "a little active, that's all," this book is for you.
As snortingly funny as The Three Martini Playdate, this book makes for a fun read on the beach while other people's children have temper tantrums until their parents cave in and let them have potato chips for lunch, dammit.
Buy one whether you're on vacation or not. You'll appreciate the laughs.
 Self Righteous, boring October 14, 2007
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
Every chapter is exactly the same theme--how the author does things the right way [i.e. "her" way] and how every other parent on earth is annoying and wrong. I have a good sense of humor and thought this book would be funny--it's not. Her children's quirks [spicy toothpaste and picky eating] she seems to find amusing. Every other child's quirks, she finds a personal affront. I've met parents like her, and avoid them like the plague. Too bad it can't be rated zero stars.
Intelligent, hilarious October 9, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved Three-Martini Playdate, the Three-Martini Family Vacation did not disappoint either; just as funny, insightful, and intelligently written as the first one, I love these books!
A Must Read ! October 4, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Probably the funniest book I have ever read on parenting. Mellor doles out wise parenting advice with a side of satire. A real break from other "real" parenting books and a quick read for the ever busy among us. A must for parents who can laugh at themselves and/or others.
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