Paranoid Parenting: Why Ignoring the Experts May Be Best for Your Child - Softcover

Furedi, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556524641 ISBN 13: 9781556524646

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2002

Synopsis

Hardly a day goes by without parents being warned of a new threat to their children's well-being. Everything is dangerous: the crib, the babysitter, the school, the supermarket, the park. High-profile campaigns convince parents that their children's health, safety, and development are constantly at risk. Parents are criticized by one child-care expert after another, but even the experts can't agree on matters as simple as whether or not it is wise to sleep next to a child. Parents don't know whom to trust; the only clear message is that they can't trust themselves. Fresh and accessible, Paranoid Parenting suggests that parental anxieties themselves are the worst influence on children. Based on new sociological research as well as dozens of interviews with parents and experts throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, this groundbreaking book will bolster parents' confidence in their own judgments and enable them to bring up confident, imaginative, and capable children.

About this title

About the Author

Frank Furedi is a professor of sociology at the University of Kent and the author of The Culture of Fear.

Reviews

A sociologist at the University of Kent, author (The Culture of Fear), and father of a six-year-old, Furedi doesn't tout his Ph.D. on his book jacket, perhaps to distance himself from the "experts" he hopes to topple here. Furedi argues that parents are not just worried but downright paranoid, due, in part, to a glut of much-publicized expert advice. In a well-constructed diatribe, Furedi outlines how parents have become victims of scare tactics about everything from breast vs. bottle to whether to let their kids play outside. Furedi first takes readers through a series of topics, ranging from pedophiles to co-sleeping, only to debunk that very climate of fear and anxiety that he accuses others of fueling. Lashing out at such venerable experts as Penelope Leach, Benjamin Spock and others, Furedi notes that experts often disagree, contradict themselves and shift their advice in reaction to the moral and cultural attitudes of the time. Claiming that society has become "child-obsessed rather than child-centered" Furedi calls for a return to reliance on parents' own instincts, and for the re-establishment of adult trust and collaboration in caring for children. Though prone to occasional bouts of exaggeration, Furedi's text is unsettling and insightful, and contemporary parents are sure to recognize themselves in these pages. Parents weary of glancing over their shoulders every time they fill a baby's bottle or head for the park will find this a welcome departure. "Parents are no more ignorant than the experts," Furedi concludes. His overriding message parents know best is one many will be happy to heed.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Furedi, a father and sociology professor, laments the barrage of photographs of missing children, reports of child abuse, and warnings about child safety that have heightened parents' distress. From the moment a child is born, parents face anxieties about crib death, potentially abusive day-care centers and baby-sitters, and the proper food, toys, and amusements. Furedi cites studies indicating that overly paranoid parents have created such structured and supervised environments that their children fail to develop enough independence and ingenuity. Based on interviews and studies in the U.S and Europe, he also cautions parents about the erosion of their authority and the politicization of parenting as professionals and the government become more involved in parent-child issues. Furedi then points to alarmist and contradictory advice offered by an array of professionals on everything from spanking to allowing babies to cry themselves to sleep. Aside from offering some sound advice, Furedi concedes there are no simple answers; however, this thoughtful book should help parents balance paranoia and appropriate concerns about child safety. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

In a time of child-snatching, Megan's Law, and "Amber alerts," Furedi (sociology, Univ. of Kent, UK) bravely critiques contemporary standards of child rearing. He asserts that self-described "experts" and the media have disenfranchised parents with pseudoscientific principles and contradictory advice. By exposing those myths and paradoxes, Furedi seeks to reempower parents with his global perspective, which reiterates the theories in many books and articles (e.g., the author's own Culture of Fear: Risk-Taking and the Morality of Low Expectations). His discussion relies on published research and statistics, interviews with parents, personal anecdotes, and a review of the most popular child-care manuals, ranging from those by Dr. Spock to Penelope Leach. This book is provocative, well argued, and clearly written, though the rhetoric can be stinging. Recommended for large public libraries and professional parenting collections, where it would complement similarly thoughtful and countercultural works like Bruno Bettelheim's A Good Enough Parent.
Antoinette Brinkman, MLS, Evansville, IN
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1556524641
• ISBN 13: 9781556524646
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 234