Erin Napier Hopes New Book Inspires People to Enjoy ‘What Happens’ In Homes
By Movieguide® Contributor
Forgotten memories of HGTV’s Erin Napier’s childhood home inspired her new book “Heirloom Rooms,” coming out this October.
“In 1955, my grandparents built the home where my parents lived when I was born, and it wasn’t a house you would see on Pinterest. It was a regular house with linoleum flooring and laminate countertops,” Napier told Homes and Gardens. “I would give anything to have photos of it now because I can never go back there. I can never be a toddler in that house again.”
“There’s so much I can’t remember about the home, and it feels like a piece of my life story is missing because I don’t know exactly how every room looked. I wonder if other people feel that way and if others grieve their houses after leaving them,’’ the 38-year-old went on to say.
On the hunch that others may feel a similar connection to their homes as she did hers, the interior designer expert argues that it is more important to build a home with fond memories than ones “that get likes on social media.”
“I hope it helps people like me who are probably overly sentimental about their houses to connect on that. I want people to enjoy their homes not for their beauty but for what happens there,” she said.
On Instagram, she described her newest book as “essays about our own home wherein every room is its own chapter about a particular time in our life together.”
“Heirloom Rooms” doesn’t just feature stories and photos of the Napiers’ home but was a collaborative effort.
“I invited friends and designers to be contributors, self-photographing their unstaged and lived-in rooms and sharing their stories of what makes it theirs and no one else’s,” the author posted.
Besides her “hats” as a TV host and author, she and her husband Ben speak out about the dangers of children having access to social media. They don’t allow their two daughters to have their own cell phones or social media accounts.
In August they launched a nonprofit called Osprey that, according to the website, supports other parents who also want to raise their children without social media.
“When we change the culture around “everyone has it except my child” by linking arms with other parents in our communities and committing to embargo social media together beginning in the elementary grades, we set our children up for success before peer pressure can take it from them,” the Osprey website states.
Movieguide® recently posted about the launching of Osprey:
Forming a circle of families and friends who are in this together when your kids are little, linking arms and doing what it takes to give your kids the gift of a social media free adolescence is the only way we change the culture,” she concluded. “For the TWENTY THOUSAND parents who’ve already joined the Osprey newsletter after my post last month, we have a vision and a plan to give our kids support that starts now and takes them through high school graduation. Let’s make old school the new way.”
Last month Erin Napier posted a video on her Instagram that teased she is “up to something” but that she needed parents to sign-up for a newsletter from Osprey. Parents who were on her side about keeping their children off social media until after high school.
She wrote, “My heart is beating so fast! More info to come this summer, but for now… If you’re raising social media free kids (as little as 5 years old through high school) I want to be connected. Will you go to my profile link or instagram stories and send me your email address? We’re planning something big. #osprey.”
