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

An acclaimed expert on parenting and childhood development argues that kids today are suffering because their parents are no longer in charge-and explains what parents and educators can do to reverse this trend.

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 people as well as the explosion in the prescribing of psychiatric medications for American kids can 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 authority by 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.

About this title

Review

The family unit is in unprecedented decline and under assault from a wide variety of cultural forces. With years of experience and research working directly with parents and children, Dr. Leonard Sax provides an important glimpse into parenting in modern times, where it s gone wrong, and how to fix it. Being a parent has never been more important and Dr. Sax explains how to avoid parenting pitfalls and raise your children well. --Dr. Bill Bennett

A comprehensive breakdown of where parents have gone awry and how they can get back on track to teach virtue and character to their children... Sax provides a series of easy-to-follow solutions that help bring parents and children back to the same page, working toward a healthier, more respectful, and conscientious attitude... With the author's solid advice, parents have a good shot at achieving these goals. --Kirkus

One of the premier experts on parenting, Dr. Leonard Sax brilliantly articulates the problems parents experience with their children, then gives solutions. The Collapse of Parenting is academic but practical, simple but deep. If you have time to read only one book this year, read this one. --Meg Meeker, M.D. best-selling author of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters and Strong Mothers, Strong Sons

Book Description

An acclaimed parenting and childhood development expert argues that kids today are suffering, both physically and mentally, because parents have abdicated authority,and explains how to reverse this trend.

Edition details

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