Author Description

I Kid You Not: A Couples Guide to Contemplative Pre-Parenting is the missing book in the library of marriage and family planning resources. Before parents search for their books on discipline, and before the expectant couple picks up the baby bible What To Expect When You’re Expecting, parents should be picking up I Kid You Not: A Couples Guide to Contemplative Pre-Parenting. In our book, we provide simple yet crucial considerations to couples who may be contemplating having children. The conversations that we guide couples to have are intended to bring intentionality to one of life’s biggest decisions. As co-authors, I use my experience as a family therapist and my husband uses his sociology background to debunk the myths and misnomers of family “planning”. There are plenty of blogs and books on pregnancy and parenting but there is a lack of content on how to plan and prepare for the decision to have a family in the first place. In an age where starting a family is still largely encouraged through tradition and cultural pressure, we invite couples into a new way of thinking, or what we call contemplative pre-parenting. We want couples to architect their lives, and we want to help by providing them with real stories and real conversations. Our book is not based on our perspectives alone. Each chapter is built around real-life interviews with couples who share their experiences planning ( and not planning ) their children. These parents describe how their decisions or lack-there-of impact their relationship and family, as well as what they wish they’d known ahead of time. It’s from the hard-earned knowledge of these couples that we package and provide guidance to future couples that could soon be in their position. At the end of each chapter, we have discussion questions for couples reading the book to talk about for practical application.