Product Description

Dr Furedi's ideas on how to stop disabling today's youth and instead bring out their full potential is invaluable advice to all parents, carers and teachers."Paranoid Parenting" is an important book that shows how parental fears have been stoked and families harmed as a consequence. It ought to be read by every sensible individual interested in regaining a sane viewpoint that advances children's well-being. It seems that every day there is a warning about your children: everything from cots, babysitters, schools, supermarkets and public parks pose a danger. We are told that children's health, safety and welfare and constantly at risk. Based on sociological research as well as dozens of interviews, this book will bolster your confidence in your own judgements and enable you to bring up self-assured, imaginative, capable children. If you want to understand why adults act like children and children act like adults - in short, if you want to understand why raising children today is harder than ever before - read this book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34215 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"Searing indictment ... full of examples of parents' disproportionate worries." -- Current Books. "I recommend 'Paranoid Parenting' to every parent who has trouble getting beyond chapter four of a how-to-parent book." --Ann Arbor Family Press.

D.L. Stewart
"In 201 pages he supports what I have suspected all along. There is no such thing as a child-raising expert."

About the Author
Frank Furedi is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is the author of numerous books including Culture of Fear Revisited, Where Have all the Intellectuals Gone? and Invitation to Terror, all published by Continuum.

Customer Reviews

A must for health professionals who advise parents.
As a practising health visitor and former midwife I approached this book, subtitled 'Abandon Your Anxieties and be a Good Parent' with some trepidation, fearing it might be another 'how to do it' tomb for anxious parents by yet another 'expert'. This however is refreshingly different because it genuinely attempts to reassure parents that they, not professionals, gurus or politicians are the experts with respect to their children. They are instead encouraged to trusts their own judgement and instincts.

Though the publicity surrounding its publication has concentrated primarily on its importance for parents and (indirectly) children, I think this is also an absolute must for any health professional who gives advice to parents about parenting and childcare issues. This book addresses issues and dilemmas that also arise for us, and puts them into context e.g. cot death, smacking, child safety. It also provides more factual and unbiased information about these issues than do many advocates and campaigners. So long as we don't get defensive, we too can learn a lot from it.

One of the best bits for me is Chapter Three where the author explains that though parenting and family make an important contribution to a child's development, they do not determine its outcome. Other influences - social, cultural and environmental, also play an enormously important part. Ironically, despite the plethora of advice on parenting, little is actually known of its actual impact on children.

The psychologising of child rearing is also discussed. Advice is frequently based on unscientific and conflicting evidence. That this puts parents under so much emotional pressure to get it right, is described in detail. It helpfully situates how this has happened and how health professionals have contributed to it, consciously or otherwise.

This book should become essential reading, not just for parents but also for politicians, experts, gurus and professionals.

Bríd Hehir

A must read for all new parents
When my husband and I had our first child 7 months ago, we found ourselves under a barrage of advice from friends, family and "experts". Many well meaning friends constantly told us the latest "expert" study and why we should know about it. There is always the underlying idea behind all this advice that if you don't do what the "experts" say your child will be damaged for life.

I found this book so refreshing! In a rare exception to most parenting books, Furedi actually elevates the role of parents over professionals in shaping children! Other books may claim that parents know best, but they then follow it up with endless advice on how parents need to change. Other advice books always point back to the experts as really knowing what is best for a child, and that parents should defer to the latest research and expert advice. Furedi turns this around and shows why the best people to deal with children are parents. Parents are the ones who know children best, and can best meet their needs.

Great ideas, shame about the details
Furedi makes some great points about the consequences of parental overprotectiveness to children's development. He has some interesting speculations about the reasons that parents have become so cautious in recent decades.

Unfortunately, the specific statistics and arguments cited by Furedi to support his claims are riddled with sloppy logic. For instance, he observes that there are fewer fatalities to child cyclists in the UK now than several decades ago, and concludes that cycling on the road has become less dangerous. However, as Furedi himself observes, far fewer children are allowed out on bicycles these days. If there are fewer kids on the road, doesn't it follow that fewer kids will die on the road?

A good editor or co-author could have helped the author produce an outstanding book. However, even as it stands, this book is thought-provoking and worth a quick read.