A bit of motherly advice

Young Chang

Nancy Robison and her husband Bob laugh good naturedly about how

children just don’t seem to accept advice from their own mother. From an

uncle, maybe, but rarely from mom.

They chuckle like people who’ve been around the block, like members of

an older, wiser generation who have accepted their roles and figured out

how to be heard.

Nancy Robison has. She got around the problem -- the one where

information goes straight into a child’s left ear and then out the right

-- through writing.

Her solution even fits in your pocket.

Titled “Dear Son, About Your Baby” and “Dear Daughter, About Your

Baby,” Robison’s two newest books were published by Simon & Schuster this

month. The Balboa Island resident and author of 65 works decided slimmer

and smaller books would come in handy for young moms and dads to read any

time, anywhere.

“I don’t give any advice that they would get from a doctor or

professional,” Robison, 67, said. “In fact, on the back of the books, it

says ‘As a collection of lessons lived, learned and passed on.”’

They’re written almost like letters, with different sections such as

“Bedtime,” “Discipline,” “Securing Your Home,” “Potty Training,”

“Traveling with Baby” and “Bathing.”

The books are “for someone who doesn’t know what’s gonna happen,” said

Bob Robison. “And we all like to know what’ll happen.”

A sampling of her tips:

* When taking a baby out for a stroll, even if it’s a warm sunny day

to the feel of your adult skin, wrap the child in a blanket.

* Try telling original bedtime stories and have your child embellish

with you.

* Whatever your baby plays with, make sure it’s chewable.

She offers pre-birth tips too. Two of these are “know your way to the

hospital” and “carry towels at all times -- you never know when your

water will break.”

Now a grandmother to eight grandchildren, Robison still remembers how

she and her husband had to drive 50 miles to the hospital when she was

having her first son.

“I had four sons in five years,” she said. “I drew on my own

experiences.”

Robison wrote the predecessors to her current “Dear Son” books more

than 20 years ago. They were titled, “Dear Son, About Your Wedding” and

“Dear Daughter, About Your Wedding.” “It was for my son who was getting

married,” said the writer, who has also been an extra in such movies as

“Mambo King.” “And he didn’t know he had to do anything to get married!”

“He thought he was going to leave it all to his fiancee,” Bob Robison

added.

So Nancy Robison made a little booklet advising her son to buy gifts

for his ushers, a bouquet for the bride and a new bouquet for his

mother-in-law, just to start off right.

“I didn’t want to write it four times, so I published the book

myself,” Robison said.

She sold them to a stationary store and Simon & Schuster eventually

bought the works and published them. “Baby” books seemed like the logical

next step.

“I learned the hard way,” Robison said. “I learned it by doing. I had

never even been a baby sitter, I didn’t even know how to change a diaper.

My mother came over for a few days, showed me how to do a diaper, and

eventually your instincts take over and you kinda go for it.”

Today, son Eric Robison has three children of his own. During a phone

interview this week from his Alhambra home, he’s alone with his two-month

old baby because his wife has gone to the grocery store.

“This is when the book comes in handy!” he laughs. “It actually did

help me as a man, as a father. I thought I knew it all, but there were

some things I didn’t.”

His mother is accustomed to this response. She shares a funny story --

one about a dozen years old.

Nancy Robison was at a book fair in Pasadena where her wedding books

were being sold. A seventh-grade boy came up to her and said he wanted to

buy her book. She asked if he was getting married. He said no, his uncle

was.

“And he said, ‘He’s been married five times but I think he needs some

guidance,”’ Robison laughed.