Brenda Ashford

Although it gets repetitive towards the end, this was otherwise a surprisingly interesting read. Brenda's presents herself as a little too good to be true---really something of a Mary Poppins---but the stories she tells about post-WWI Britain, WWII, and then the changes she observed afterwards are so interesting, the perfection wasn't really distracting. It was especially interesting reading about the evolution of her empathy towards parents and about her developing awareness of class differences.

I listened to this on audio, and the most annoying thing was that the recipes at the fronts of the chapters were narrated, too. Had I been reading a book, I would have skimmed those rather than reading them word for word.

Overall, though, it was lovely to read about the mid-20th century from the perspective of a member of the "Greatest Generation." Most often I read about this period as written by Baby Boomers, who have their own particular biases. It was amusing to see the attitudes and parenting styles of my parents' generation through Brenda's eyes. It puts GenX and Millennials into a different context and reinforces much that I have observed about Boomers myself.… (mehr)

Easy but interesting read. Brenda Ashford was a nanny for sixty-something years, meaning she had a front-row seat for all the changes in child-rearing methodology over several decades. Her recollections were interesting, and I picked up a couple of things that I will probably put into practice if/when I have children of my own. But there's nothing mindblowing and it's not a parenting how-to, by any means -- just the thoughts of a longtime nanny (who, interestingly, never had children of her own) looking back over decades of service to more than a hundred children.… (mehr)