What ever happened to reading?

Before our first son, Casey, was born, we did a LOT of reading.  Not about anything, but specifically we read a lot about babies, birthing, and bringing up your child.  We became experts of child-rearing from age -9months until 1 year. 

Once Casey was born, we then became so busy with the task of now actually raising the kid, we left the books on the shelf, and read no more.

Almost six years later, and we find ourselves scratching our heads not only about the behavior we see in our almost six-year-old, but also our newly turned three-year-old, and even our eight-month-old.  Seriously, we're just mystified with what we see in our boys, and we have felt a little helpless.

That's when Sarah finally decided that maybe it was a good time to pick up a book and read about our boys.  She borrowed several books from the public library, and I promptly made fun of her.  "I mean, c'mon," I told her as she cracked the first one open.  "When are those from, like the early seventies?  Check out that collar and those bangs!  Seriously, honey, we're raising 21st century kids here," I remember telling her (and if not saying it out loud, I certainly thought it).

It wasn't until she read one of the first passages in the book that literally described, right down to the last word in the paragraph, the behavior and situation we'd been witnessing in our own flesh and blood for the past several weeks!  I couldn't believe how accurately it described our kids' behavior.  This of course had two effects:  (1) we now know we are not alone with this!, and (2) we now have better perspective on how to handle these situations.

Boy, what ever happened to reading?