Safe and Sound: Protecting Your Child in an Unpredictable World - Softcover

Ochs, Vanessa L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140178805 ISBN 13: 9780140178807

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 1995

Synopsis

In this informative and comforting study of parental overprotection, journalist Vanessa Ochs explores the roots of overprotectiveness and offers sound advice to help parents walk the sometimes thin line between sound protection and overprotection. Ochs is the author of Words on Fire.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Drawing on research in child development and extensive interviews with families, journalist Vanessa Ochs helps parents make sensible, age-appropriate decisions about when to protect and when to let go and provides strategies for taming their irrational fears and transforming them into manageable ones. Here's sound guidance for parents who want to keep their kids safe and sound, while still nurturing their self-reliance and sense of security.

Reviews

Ochs, a journalist who specializes in child development and family-related topics, writes a direct and sympathetic guide for parents who are "no longer sure how to draw the thin line between sane caution and overprotection." After her own injury in a car accident precipitated a bout of extreme overprotection of her children, Ochs determined to examine the rational and irrational reasons behind parental overprotection. The bulk of the book is devoted to chapters arranged by stages of a child's life, starting with pre-birth. In each, Ochs outlines the typical protective decisions facing parents and provides sensible tips on knowing when to let go. She suggests a strategy, modeled on traffic lights, for assessing typical anxiety-provoking situations?"an easy green" is leaving a child with a grandparent, while a "red light" is a teenager's request to go to a party where drinking is likely. The final chapter takes an insightful and poignant look at family protection talismans and rituals?from wearing St. Christopher medals to once-a-week phone conversations?and how they give a sense of security to parents and offspring of all ages.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Drawing on her experience as both an overprotected child and a parent suddenly overprotective after a car accident as well as on interviews with other children and parents, Ochs explores how parents rationalize overprotectiveness, just what overprotectiveness is, and the negative effects it has on children's development. She cites case studies with subjects ranging from infants to teens that illustrate how to both assess dangers and encourage developmental steps appropriate to each age. Because overprotected children suffer low self-esteem, difficulty in making friends, inability to identify and meet their own needs, anxiety about going to school, and related problems, Ochs' advice to parents on evaluating risks and overcoming fears to make rational decisions about activities or situations involving their children is particularly welcome. Ochs' warm and accessible book addresses a problem that is often ignored or regarded as a sign of good parenting. Kathryn Carpenter

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140178805
• ISBN 13: 9780140178807
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240