The Kids Are All Right

Parenting with Confidence in an Uncertain World

By: Gabrielle Stanley Blair, Ben Blair

Narrated by: Gabrielle Stanley Blair, Ben Blair

From Design Mom blogger Gabrielle Blair and her husband, Ben Blair, a unique guide that subverts the concept of "perfect parenting" by embracing uncertainty.

Gabrielle and Ben Blair have been raising kids for over two decades. Through the years, they’ve charted their own unconventional path: working from home before remote work was a thing; uprooting their kids four, five, six times – including a move to France where they enrolled in local schools without knowing the language. It’s been a unique parenting journey characterized by experimentation, trial and error, decisions prompted by financial or psychological necessity, varying levels of anxiety and tension, despair, and hope. This unique path turned out to be fertile soil for growing independent, resilient, and creative kids, and a family that is genuinely close and truly enjoys each other’s company.

With this book they share how they did it, and how we can too: by letting go of tired expectations of what it means to be a good parent (focus less on grades and more on seeing your kid for who they are); by accepting that the old rules won’t necessarily apply in the future (changes in higher ed and career-building are evolving at a rapid pace) and instead focus on making your time with your kids one of connection, adventure, shared projects, creativity and joy. And it doesn’t require moving to France!

LOVE THIS!!!

The parenting book I’ve been waiting for! A great zoomed out perspective on what really matters (and what might matter less than you think) in raising kids well:)

This is exactly what I needed.

I appreciate the Blair’s experience and their perspective at their stage in life. I highly recommend this listen if you are feeling unsure about your parenting.

Logical Approach

Loved listening to this! Lots of great ideas for siblings and for really cultivating a family culture.

Privileged

I heard about this book from a podcast that I enjoy. I thought it would be an interesting book about parenting in the modern world. While there were some mentions of different parenting issues, the authors mostly emphasized how great their kids are after experiencing an abundance of privilege. They go on and on about the million moves they made from state to state and out of the country, and honestly it’s just annoying. I fast forwarded through a lot of the content in this book until I just gave up on it.
I think the authors slightly mislead the readers by saying this is a parenting book, because really, it’s more about their family and their personal lives. It is totally unrelatable.