It Takes a Village - 10th anniversary edition

Zusatztext "It Takes a Village deserves to be read...it would be a loss if the nation missed this opportunity to address the issues Hillary Rodham Clinton raises." -- The Christian Science Monitor Informationen zum Autor Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party and the winner of the national popular vote. She served as Secretary of State after nearly four decades in public service as an attorney, First Lady, and US Senator. She is married to former US President Bill Clinton and is a mother and grandmother. Visit HillaryClinton.com. Klappentext In celebration of the tenth anniversary of "It Takes a Village," this splendid edition includes photographs and a new Introduction by Senator Clinton. As relevant as ever, this anniversary edition makes it abundantly clear that the choices made by parents today about how to raise children and how to support families will determine how the nation will face the challenges of the 21st century. It Takes a Village We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results. HERMAN MELVILLE Children are not rugged individualists. They depend on the adults they know and on thousands more who make decisions every day that affect their well-being. All of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, are responsible for deciding whether our children are raised in a nation that doesn't just espouse family values but values families and children. I have spent much of the past twenty-five years working to improve the lives of children. My work has taught me that they need more of our time, energy, and resources. But no experience brought home the lesson as vividly as becoming a mother myself. When Chelsea Victoria Clinton lay in my arms for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the love and responsibility I felt for her. Despite all the books I had read, all the children I had studied and advocated for, nothing had prepared me for the sheer miracle of her being. For the first time, I understood the words of the writer Elizabeth Stone: "Making the decision to have a child -- it's wondrous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." Bill and I had wanted to start a family immediately after we married, in 1975, but we were not having much luck. In 1979, we scheduled an appointment to visit a fertility clinic right after a long-awaited vacation. Lo and behold, I got pregnant during that vacation. (I have often remarked to my husband that we might have had more children if we had taken more vacations!) Bill was then governor of Arkansas, and my pregnancy was so widely discussed I thought the entire state might show up for the delivery. A lot of folks did, although, as far as I know, no one took pictures, or I'm sure you would have seen them by now. Friends gave us helpful hints about how they had handled pregnancy and parenting. One of my favorites, from a burly ex-football player, was: "Think of a baby like a football, and hold it tight." We read the advice books and asked endless questions of doctors, midwives, and nurses. I persuaded Bill to attend Lamaze classes, where he and the other first-time fathers-to-be sat silently, arms crossed defensively over their chests, trying to look as if they were somewhere else. Our instructor asked how many of them had ever baby-sat or held an infant or, heaven forbid, bathed or changed one. A few mumbled, but hardly any hands went up. Then the teacher asked how many were scared to death of being responsible for a baby. Nervous laughter erupted, and many arms flagged in the air. After that you couldn't keep them quiet! Despite all our preparation, when I went into labor, three weeks early, I wasn't ready. Governor Bill Clinton, Lamaze list in hand, rushed about...

Product details

• Authors: Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 24.01.2007
• EAN: 9781416540649
• ISBN: 978-1-4165-4064-9
• Dimensions: 170 mm x 242 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Non-fiction book