Covering Home: Lessons on the Art of Fathering from the Game of Baseball

by Jack Petrash

Book Overview

Willie Mays said that good players can play with their bodies, but great players play with their hearts and minds as well. The same is true for fathering. In Covering Home, author Jack Petrash combines a love for children with his love for the game of baseball to give fathers, or fathers-to-be, a new perspective on raising children.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589040139
• ISBN13: 9781589040137
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Robins Lane Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The best fathering book I've ever read

I can't emphasize how helpful this book has been to me, as well as to our family. It has helped me become a better father, husband, and person. I've recommended this book to many people. I highly recommend this book for any father who wants to take his parenting to a new level.

What a great book !

I really liked the lessons you can learn from this book. It gives a great overview what to expect and what to do with your children as a caring parent. Having three sons myself i often had the same experiences as described in this book. I really can recommend it, also, coming from Munich in Germany, i do not have an idea, what baseball is about. Now i know even a little of this topic.

A reader friendly, accessible, and effective "how to" book

In Covering Home: Lessons On The Art Of Fathering From The Game Of Baseball, Jack Petrash interweaves advice and insights on how to be an effective, loving father with anecdotes and allegories of baseball. Using terms and illustrations from baseball, Petrash shows that to be a good father takes similar qualities required to be a good player: be present, establish routines early in a child's life, keep bad situations from escalating out of control, and avoid dwelling on parental failures by focusing on successes. Covering Home is one of the most reader friendly, accessible, and effective "how to" books on parenting ever written specifically for Dads.

Baseball Mom

Speaking as a single baseball mom struggling to cover home, I applaud Jack Petrash's approach to parenting. His common sense but maybe a not so common approach of listening to the kids sets the tone for day-to-day encounters. "Covering Home" is refreshing in its lack of 'must buys'and 'must haves' for children and offers the clarity of a simpler time when just being there was good enough.

Help Your Children Get Ready for the Major Leagues of Life

This excellent book is that greatest of all rarities, a book for fathers about how to parent written in language most fathers can easily understand! Wow!!The key message: Put your children first, and be there to build a life with them and for them. I highly recommend this book to prospective fathers who want to start getting ready, to practicing fathers who want to improve, and to fathers who know how to do better than they are performing now and want to be reinspired. Moms and wives: This is a great gift book for you to give to future and current dads.Baseball is the metaphor used here for fathering, and it works well. The book looks at "how in fathering as in baseball you have to work on fundamentals, develop good habits, avoid errors, work on your control, and always keep in mind you can't win them all." "'Covering Home' is part spring training, part team building, and part clinic." As in baseball, for fathers "knowing when to cover home is essential."One of the parts you will relate well to comes in the introduction when Mr. Petrash talks about remembering playing catch with his dad after work, and then doing the same with his own children (including his daughter). I could feel the hot, humid stickiness of heavy air again just before the street lights came on and the chill began, just to think about those days. Ah . . . what wonderful memories baseball brings of time with fathers and children! Mr. Petrash knows what he is talking about, having been a single parent of 2 sons and a daughter after a divorce, combined with his day job as a teacher. The book has nine lessons, just like the number of innings in a regulation game. He also has some extra inning advice if it goes longer.Lesson 1: "If You Want the Season of a Lifetime, Prepare for It" You should focus on "active participation, emotional involvement and thoughtful awareness."Lesson 2: "Understand the Pace of the Game and Manage Accordingly." To nature an "active, emotional and thoughtful child" you have to be a good example worthy of imitation, set up and be there for special events with your children, and respect your child's thinking while providing emotional support and affirmation. Lesson 3: "To Be an All-Star, Make the Highlight Film (and Avoid the Blooper Reel)" This is as simple as working on building positive, rather than negative, memories for your child of your time together.Lesson 4: "Good Habits Last All Season Long, So Establish Them Early and Practice Them Often" Your child will benefit from positive routines built around the evening meal, bedtime, and other low-key activities to help establish self-discipline.Lesson 5: "Work Both Sides of the Plate" Complement, don't compete, with your wife's approach and insights.Lesson 6: "If You Have a Shallow Bench, Keep Your Game Simple" If you are a single dad, be calm and move on. Lesson 7: "Develop Well-Rounded Players" This is simply helping your children improve themselves in many different dimensions.