The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups - Hardcover

Sax, Leonard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465048978 ISBN 13: 9780465048977

Publisher: Basic Books, 2015

Synopsis

In this New York Times bestseller, one of America’s premier physicians offers a must-read account of the new challenges facing parents today and a program for how we can better prepare our children to navigate the obstacles they face 

In The Collapse of Parenting, internationally acclaimed author Leonard Sax argues that rising levels of obesity, depression, and anxiety among young people can be traced to parents abdicating their authority. The result is children who have no standard of right and wrong, who lack discipline, and who look to their peers and the Internet for direction. Sax shows how parents must reassert their authority - by limiting time with screens, by encouraging better habits at the dinner table, and by teaching humility and perspective - to renew their relationships with their children. Drawing on nearly thirty years of experience as a family physician and psychologist, along with hundreds of interviews with children, parents, and teachers, Sax offers a blueprint parents can use to help their children thrive in an increasingly complicated world.

About this title

About the Author

Leonard Sax MD PhD graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the age of 19, and then went on to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned both a PhD in psychology, and an MD. He completed a 3-year residency in family practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For 19 years, Dr. Sax was a practicing family physician in Maryland, just outside Washington DC. In 2005, Doubleday published his first book Why Gender Matters; an updated edition will be published in 2017. His second book, Boys Adrift, was published in 2007; an updated edition will be published in June 2016. His third book Girls on the Edge was published in 2010. His fourth book The Collapse of Parenting was published by Basic Books in December 2015.
Dr. Sax has spoken on issues of child and adolescent development not only in the United States but also in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, and Switzerland. He has visited more than 380 schools since 2001. He has appeared on the TODAY Show, CNN, National Public Radio, Fox News, PBS, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, New Zealand Television, and many other national and international media. 
Dr. Sax now lives with his wife and daughter in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He returned to clinical practice, in Pennsylvania, in 2013. His favorite activities are hiking in the woods, and making music with his wife and daughter (he plays piano). You can reach Dr. Sax directly, or visit his Facebook page, via his web site leonardsax.com.

From the Inside Flap

In The Collapse of Parenting, physician, psychologist, and internationally-acclaimed author Leonard Sax presents data documenting a dramatic decline in the achievement and psychological health of American children. Sax argues that rising levels of obesity, depression, and anxiety among young peopleas well as the explosion in the prescribing of psychiatric medications for American kidscan all be traced to parents who let their kids call the shots.

Many parents are afraid of seeming too dictatorial, and end up abdicating their authority rather than taking a stand with their own children. If kids refuse to eat anything green and demand pizza instead, some parents give in, inadvertently raising children who are more likely to become obese. If children are given smartphones and allowed to spend the bulk of their free time texting, playing video games, and surfing the Internet, they become increasingly reliant on peers and the media for guidance on how to live, rather than looking to their parents. And if they won t sit still in class or listen to adults, they re often prescribed medication, a quick fix that actually undermines their self-control. In short, Sax argues, parents are failing to prioritize the parent-child relationship above all other relationships. The result is children who have no absolute standard of right and wrong, who lack discipline, and who look to their peers and the Internet for direction, instead of looking to their parents.

But there is hope. Sax shows how parents can help their kids by reasserting their authorityby limiting time with screens, by encouraging better habits at the dinner table and at bedtime, and by teaching humility and perspective. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of experience as a family physician and psychologist, along with hundreds of interviews with children, parents, and teachers, across the United States and around the world, Sax offers a blueprint parents can use to refresh and renew their relationships with their children, to help their children thrive in an increasingly complicated world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465048978
• ISBN 13: 9780465048977
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304