The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Coddled Kids, Helicopter Parents, and Other Phony Crises - Softcover

Alfie; Etc Kohn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807073881 ISBN 13: 9780807073889

Publisher: Beacon Press, 2016

Synopsis

A prominent and esteemed critic challenges widely held beliefs about children and parenting, revealing that underlying each myth is a deeply conservative ideology that is, ironically, often adopted by liberal parents.

Somehow a set of deeply conservative assumptions about children what they re like and how they should be raised has congealed into the conventional wisdom in our society. Parents are accused of being both permissive and overprotective, unwilling to set limits and afraid to let their kids fail. Alfie Kohn systematically debunks these beliefs, not only challenging erroneous factual claims but also exposing the troubling ideology that underlies them. Complaints about pushover parents and coddled kids are hardly new, he shows, and there is no evidence that either phenomenon is especially widespread today let alone more common than in previous generations. Moreover, new research reveals that helicopter parenting is quite rare and, surprisingly, may do more good than harm when it does occur. The major threat to healthy child development, Kohn argues, is parenting that is too controlling rather than too indulgent.

With the same lively, contrarian style that marked his influential books about rewards, competition, and education, Kohn relies on a vast collection of social science data, as well as on logic and humor, to challenge assertions that appear with numbing regularity in the popular press and are often accepted uncritically, even by people who are politically liberal. These include claims that young people

     suffer from inflated self-esteem
     are entitled and narcissistic
     receive trophies, praise, and A s too easily
     are in need of more self-discipline and grit

Kohn s invitation to reexamine these and other assumptions is particularly timely; his book has the potential to change our culture s conversation about kids and the people who raise them.

About this title

Review:

4/1/14"Kohn attacks the status quo on child-rearing and parenting...Via research and interviews, Kohn closely examines the current media-backed perceptions of permissive and controlling parenting and contrasts them with actual data, deflating popular beliefs that children are now more spoiled and unruly than ever...A thought-provoking, semicontroversial scrutiny of modern parenting practices." --"Kirkus Reviews",

Book Description:

Parenting and education expert Alfie Kohn tackles the misconception that overparenting and overindulgence has produced a modern generation of entitled children incapable of making their way in the world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0807073881
• ISBN 13: 9780807073889
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280