Go the F--k to Sleep: What it reveals

The latest generation of moms and dads has found its parenting manual, said Karen Spears Zacharias in CNN.com. And it’s called Go the F--k to Sleep. This beautifully illustrated spoof on “beloved bedtime storybooks” has become a publishing phenomenon, shooting to the top of the Amazon and New York Times best-seller lists. It tells the expletive-filled tale of a father trying unsuccessfully to lay his toddler down to sleep, and features stanzas dripping with deadpan rage: “The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest / And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep / I know you’re not thirsty. That’s bulls--t. Stop lying / Lie the f--k down, my darling, and sleep.” Publishers excuse the vile language by saying that Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés have created a “cathartic children’s book for parents.” But what kind of parent feels such hostility toward his or her kids?

An incredibly insecure one, said Tom Scocca in New York. The secret of this cheekily transgressive book’s success is that today’s 20- and 30-somethings never quite grew up themselves, so the self-sacrifice and patience required to raise children comes as something of a shock. Now that they’ve been forced to behave like adults, they’re angry—and worried they’re not up to it. Actually, no normal person could meet the utterly selfless standards of modern parenting, says Katie Roiphe in Slate.com. Modern helicopter parents are so caught up with their “enlightened, engaged, sensitive parenting” that they neglect their own lives and needs. The book captures the “existential despair” of couples immersed in “kid-centered drabness,” too exhausted for sex, and too guilty to go out and have some fun.

Aren’t you taking this a bit too seriously? said Jill Filipovic in the London Guardian. The book is successful because it taps into something that every parent knows, deep down: “Sometimes, children are just frustrating.” They don’t respond to logic or reason, and they are almost entirely self-centered. Surely, the wish that your kid would just shut up and go to sleep “transcends class, country, religion, and race.” There’s nothing wrong with venting some frustration about how hard parenting is, said Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon.com. Every parent of a newborn or toddler knows exactly “who wears the poop-loaded, spit-up-stained pants” in their “torturously sleep-deprived relationship.” If you can’t laugh at the absurdity of that, you’re in trouble.

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