We Were Perfect Parents Until We Had Children by Vanessa Raphaely & Karin Schimke

TGE's Current Read

On this episode of TGE’s Current Read (and a special bonus episode of The Great Equalizer), two of the fiercest women in the publishing and parenting space – Vanessa Raphaely and Karin Schimke – join your hosts, Sam and Charlene, to talk about their book: We Were Perfect Parents Until We Had Children.
Through combined effort, Vanessa and Karin gathered together several key experiences and insights from members of The Village – a 60k-member-strong Facebook group that offers support, wisdom and a shoulder to cry on for parents across South Africa.
The group provided the gems and remedies that Vanessa and Karin drew on to draft the marrow of the book: Non-judgmental nuggets of wisdom from the real parenting experts – the parents who form The Village – gathered and bound to help readers raise their families in their own perfectly imperfect way.
Vanessa chats with The Great Equalizer about the origins of The Village, Karin gets vulnerable about her own parenting journey, and we touch on the vast array of subjects that the book covers, including mental health, discipline, sex, gender, money matters, and self love.
Parenting doesn't get easier, folks. It just challenges us in all new, different and scary ways. Luckily, we have each other – and this book – to guide us through the tough times.
About the Authors:
Vanessa Raphaely started her career on London’s Fleet Street before returning to SA to become the multi-award-winning editor of Cosmopolitan, and to run Associated Media. After 20 years, Vanessa left and launched The Village, a Facebook group 60 000 members strong, well known and much-loved among South African parents (which we will be talking about, at length, in just a bit).
For years, author, editor and writing coach Karin Schimke was a parenting columnist for Femina magazine and a journalist who contributed regularly to Parent24. Karin is author the weekly ‘Love Letter’, which tracks her adventures in her post-parenting years.
BLURB:
‘I straighten her little tiara every morning – I lift her chin and remind her
that she is meant for greater things than playground bullies.’
‘Everything shines in its own time. There is no timetable for life.
Timetables are for classrooms, not for people.’
These are just some of the wisdoms shared on The Village, South Africa’s beloved Facebook group for parents raising tweens, teens and young adults.
Having kids is a baffling endeavour beset with sulks, meltdowns, anxiety and disappointment – and that’s just the parents! When you get that call to the principal’s office? When the school acceptances don’t come? When the bedroom door slams and you hear your child sobbing behind it? All awful but the family years are also, to many of us, our most precious time. The trick? To find a way to enjoy our families, love our children and believe in them and ourselves despite the daily challenges. And laugh . . .
In this book, Vanessa Raphaely and Karin Schimke have gathered together experiences and insights from The Village members. These are the gems and remedies from the real parenting experts – the parents – to help you raise your family in your own perfectly imperfect way.
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#parentingpodcast #motherhoodunplugged #goodenoughparenting #parentingpodcasts #nojudgies #currentread #podcastersofsouthafrica #podcastersofinstagram The Village | Facebook · Jonathan Ball Publishers | We Were Perfect Parents Until We Had Children