The fact that I’m writing about Robyn Gobbel’s book Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviors (no matter who you are, you can pause here and run to your favorite bookstore or go online and order this book—even if you are Robyn Gobbel because it’s good to support yourself) has nothing to do with the fact that I earned, I believe, the only four exclamation points in a row that show up in this book. If I’m wrong, don’t tell me. I take this achievement seriously.

I’m writing about this book because I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stop wishing everyone in the world would read it so that everyone would benefit from its wisdom. I wonder how children’s experience of school would change if their teachers read this book. I wonder how adults’ experience of themselves as humans (regardless of whether they are parents) would change if they read it.

I wonder how our prisons would look. Emptier, I think.

I wonder if addiction rates would go down. If suicides would decrease. If cutting would become less of a thing.

Robyn writes: “No behavior is maladaptive. In fact, all behavior makes sense.”

What if you did not feel you had to punish someone for their behavior? What if you had the tools to make sense of the behavior, instead, and work from a place of understanding instead of a lost, punitive sense of I have to get control of this person?

Have you ever seen a photo of Robyn? She is the opposite of punitive. She is playful. Her smile. Her eyes. The bright colors she wears, everywhere, even on her feet and lips. She, dear reader, understands life is hard, but that it is also a lot more flipping fun when you are understood.

I am writing this to share Robyn with you and because it’s a lot of work to tell everyone I know, individually, they should read this book. I’m being efficient with my time so I can go back and read her book again. I love inhaling the sentences she has written that prove to me I’m okay. That the things I do and have done were rooted in good reasons, and that there are ways for me to understand my watchdog, my possum, (you’ll meet these states of being in the book) so my nervous system allows me to connect more fully with myself and others.

!!!!