Customer Reviews

Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a mother of 4, grandmother of 6, and pediatric physical therapist, I found this book an invaluable tool for re-evaluating how our child-rearing has become so tightly wound, for both the children and the parents who so desperately want their children to succeed. It is a close look at many patterns of parenting that we all have, at one time or another, slipped into. It raises huge questions about the value of pushing ourselves and our children in order to achieve outcomes that are often, at best, misguided, and at worst, leave us with adolescents that feel that the bar has been raised so high they are left with a sense of hopelessness. Honere has done a good job of bringing these important concerns forward, and I think this book will be a catalyst for many important conversations about the directions our child rearing practices are taking. Looking backward I can see the deep caverns that well meaning parents, and educators have slipped into, and looking forward, I fear that we are pushing our children too hard and too fast. This is such an important topic. We are consistently bombarded with media blitzes about the destruction of our physical resources, what what about our human resources, there is little dialogue about the precious commodity called childhood, and it is eroding rapidly into a rush-rush day-timer full of activities, with little time left to daly into the dreamlike state of childhood. Thank you Carl Honare for writing this important book!

This book is, primarily, a world tour of different viewpoints and options for education, particularly of young children. Honoré is a parent himself and the book seems to have been born from an almost obsessive search for the most unconventional schooling options for children. While I found many of the options he explored both interesting and compelling (the schools where preschool aged children spend a full day exploring nature together with their adult guides, for example), Honoré seemed incapable finding any fault with the non-traditional options he explored, while having nothing but loathing for conventional methods. An interesting read, but the author is too blinded by novelty to make any real focused recommendations for new directions.

This is the best non-fiction book I have read in years! I am frustrated with what parenting has become - over-protective and hovering and yet, a bit lazy. I was previewing a documentary on John Glenn a few years ago, and I realized that there would be very few John Glenn's or Charles Lindburgh's because parents have removed all risk from childhood. Conversely, I wonder if there is a backlash into extreme sports because kids are discovering risk late in life. In any case, this is a must read for all parents. It is extensively researched, and covers changes in parenting worldwide. The takeaway comment comes from Carl Honore's then 7-year-old son after a day of helmet-free ice skating, "the best part was feeling the wind in my hair when I went really fast." May all children experience feeling the wind in their hair! Mr. Honore deserves a Pulitzer for this book.

I felt the title is a bit misleading. This book isn't about just over-parenting or just under-parenting but more about the right balance in the right areas. It shares many ideas with various real world examples that match not only with the title of hyper-parenting but also the opposite. Some may say extreme examples but I've seen most of them in real life. If you are around kids at all read this book!

Being a new parent and facing a world of changes an decisions, I found this to be a fresh and rewarding point of view. Honoré shows different points of view to the general belief of this past decade regarding education. The need to let kids get frustrated is amazing. Giving a child the chance to learn how to fail and recover from failure is the greatest educational tool. Teaching them to let them "be", instead of giving them all we parents wanted for ourselves is what parents haven't done in years. Two thumbs up for a great guide to parenting. Of course the book has to be read with the benefit of doubt, that is, you should read the book and digest its content, and only then, make your own decisions, based on what you read and your evaluation of the lectures.

From the very first page, information galore. Makes you sit back and think about how to pull back a little and let our children make some mistakes -- at least let them have something of their own!