The Idle Parent Why Laid-Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids

by Hodgkinson, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781585428007
• ISBN10: 1585428000
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-13
• Publisher: Tarcher

Summary

This wise and funny book presents a revolutionary yet highly practical approach to childcare: leave them alone. "The Idle Parentcame as a huge relief to the whole family. Suddenly, it was okay to leave the kids to sort it out among themselves. Suddenly, it was okay to be responsibly lazy. This is the most counterintuitive but most helpful and consoling child-raising manual I've yet read."-Alain de Botton, author of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Workand The Consolations of Philosophy "The most easy-to-follow-without-being-made-to-feel-inadequate parenting manifesto ever written . . . A godsend to parents."- The Sunday Times "Add liberal doses of music, jovial company and deep woods to play in- all central to the idle, not to say Taoist, life-and you have a recipe for bright, happy people with need of neither television nor shrink. Who could ask for more?"- The Evening Standard In The Idle Parent, the author of The Freedom Manifestoand How to Be Idleapplies his trademark left-of-center theories of idleness to what can be one of the thorniest aspects of adult life: parenting. Many parents today spend a whole lot of time worrying and wondering- frantically "helicoptering" over their children with the hope that they might somehow keep (or make?) them flawless. But where is this approach to childcare getting us? According to Hodgkinson, in our quest to give our kids everything, we fail to give them the two things they need most: the space and time to grow up self-reliant, confident, happy, and free. In this smart and hilarious book, Hodgkinson urges parents to stop worrying and instead start nurturing the natural instincts toward creativity and independence that are found in every child. And the great irony: in doing so, we will find ourselves becoming happier and better parents.

Author Biography

Tom Hodgkinson is the author of The Freedom Manifesto and How to Be Idle. Editor of the British magazine The Idler, he also has a parenting column in The Daily Telegraph. He lives on a farm in Devon, England, with his family.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Idle Parent Manifesto	p. 11
Bring Back Child Labor	p. 13
Stop the Whining	p. 26
Seek Not Perfection, or Why Bad Parents Are Good Parents	p. 37
The Importance of Nature	p. 54
The More, the Merrier	p. 66
Down with School	p. 77
The Myth of Toys	p. 95
Ban TV, Embrace Freedom	p. 104
Let Us Sleep	p. 111
The Power of Music and Dancing	p. 123
End All Activities, Be Wild	p. 134
No More Family Days Out	p. 148
How to Enjoy Mealtimes, with Some Thoughts on Manners	p. 160
Let Animals Work for You	p. 172
Make Stuff from Wood and Junk	p. 184
Say "Yes"	p. 195
Learn How to Live from Your Kids	p. 206
Good Books and Bad Books	p. 222
Don't Fret About Computers, or Toward a Tao of Parenting	p. 242
Acknowledgments	p. 253
Index	p. 255
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.