Our first time at bat…

We’ve been away from blogging and tweeting for a while as we worked on our remarks on TYC for our first public speaking event. We started by underlining sections of The Yes Child that we felt were germane to an audience of parents of fifth through ninth graders. Then we worked on our remarks to proceed and follow each reading, handing the narration back and forth between us to, hopefully, keep it interesting and let the audience hear from both of us.
Then we sat down on the sofa in our living room and recorded each iteration of our remarks so we could critique them as to length and effectiveness of what was being said. We went through three separate and very different iterations before arriving at the one we delivered Thursday night, which ended up being about 20 minutes long (c’mon, the book is only 104 pages).
It seems to have worked because, of a crowd of 40 people in ever-busy Washington, DC at 7PM no one left before our talk was over and we responded to questions for another 20-25 minutes, retiring to the back of the room where a table was set up for book sales. We sold 11 books, which isn’t a whole lot but when I think what our expectations had been and how this meant that we sold books to almost 25% of the group, we felt like we hit one over the fence!!! People asked that we sign them, too, which we were only too happy to do and engaged us in further conversation for another 20 minutes. The most satisfying remark we got was one mother who told us that she “was so glad to find a book written by parents, for parents! I have neither the time nor the desire to read another book that thick (holding her fingers two inches apart) by some doctor or child specialist!”
This was a reaction that we had anticipated and counted on, but to hear someone state it out loud was music to our ears. They knew that we didn’t claim to be experts or authorities on anything other than our own family’s experience; they knew that we hadn’t raised “perfect kids perfectly” and they knew that we were speaking from our hearts about a subject that is very real and dear to us. And the response was warmth and intelligent questions that illuminated some of their own parenting concerns. One woman, Michelle, bought three copies, one for her, one for her husband and one for her son! I asked her to let us know what her son especially thought about it, as we believe that parents and their children reading TYC together can result in a new, proven, “field tested in the real world” method of communication. Special thanks to Martha C., the head of the school and Miriam G., the head of the parents association, for taking a flyer on us and for their follow up emails commending our effort!