The Overparenting Solution
Raising Resourceful Children to Meet Today's Challenges
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- $35.99
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- $35.99
Publisher Description
Features pragmatic, reasonable advice for how parents can raise their children effectively and lovingly without overdoing it.
Today, in the world of Covid-19, parents may be more anxious than ever as they aim to make sense of the changing landscape of education. We see now that within the context of social distancing, which we may be facing for quite some time, families are experiencing a mix of positive and negative influences, including new stressors, which cause division and even danger, while at the same time, some families are discovering novel ways of remaining blended together. Regardless, families must find their way forward to overcome bad decisions and embrace these challenging circumstances.
The generational desire of parents to want their children to have more opportunity and success than they did has become outdated for many families, especially those of means, but this has not stopped parents from going too far with their children, from pushing them into needless high-pressure situations to protecting them from any possible failure or disappointment. While we know that it is getting harder and harder to get into a select college, and after graduation, it is often more difficult to find a “prestigious” job, parents are not doing their kids any favors by resorting to any means necessary to ensure what they define as their offspring’s success. This work shows readers how to parent better, not more, allowing children to make their own mistakes and learn from them, and grow into functioning, self-reliant adults.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Anxious, excessively attentive, and overly competitive child rearing creates negative consequences," warn psychiatrist Glass (Blending Families Successfully) and editor Tabatsky (Write for Life) in their disappointing survey of "overparenting." Defined as "when someone tries too hard to manage the outcome of her child's life, imposing her own expectations... regardless of the child's wishes and abilities," overparenting, the authors write, can come in many forms. There's the "protector," parents who are overly anxious about their child getting hurt or failing; the "controller," who chooses commands instead of guidance and lessons; and the "maturity killer," who treats their children as perpetual babies. Glass and Tabatsky then show how these tendencies play out in areas such as extracurricular activities (by setting unrealistic expectations for sports), technology (tracking one's kids), and higher education (parents over-coaching kids' college application essays). In the way of solutions, they suggest a dose of "benign neglect" and letting children fail, but neither lay out a detailed plan for doing so nor push the familiar ideas into new terrain. Readers looking for help with improving their own parenting skills will be left wanting.
