If you’re an expert on parenting, chances are you’re not a parent. And if you are a parent and you think you’re an expert, you’re probably not an expert either. Being a parent means constant worrying about getting it wrong and wondering if you’ll ever get it right. But at least that’s better than being totally sure you’re right because that’s a really bad sign.
That being said, a few things are starting to become clearer in the 21st century, and one is that trying too hard to be the perfect parent is counter-productive. And another is that if your goal is trophy children instead of happy children with the every-expanding wisdom to chart their own course, your kids probably won’t be happy or able to chart their own course.
Canadian author Carl Honore hit the big time with his 2004 book In Praise of Slow, arguing that people need to, well, chill out. In 2008 he released Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting. While he was born in Scotland he spent much of his childhood in Edmonton, and that’s where I met him way back in 2008 when Under Pressure was a brand-new book, Facebook was only four years old, YouTube was only three, and my first daughter was not yet two. He discussed his views on:
Why kids shouldn’t be outsourced to gadgets, and what toys should and should not do for kids What it takes to create well-rounded and creative children Why he agrees with George Lucas about education Just how widespread over-scheduling is How much time children need per day to be free of adult-structured and screen-focused activities How to tell if you’re trying to turn your children into trophies, and Why he disapproves of the movement to teach sign language to babies who can hear
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