Paranoid Parenting: Why Ignoring the Experts May Be Best for Your Child

Paranoid Parenting: Why Ignoring the Experts May Be Best for Your Child by Furedi, Frank. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781556524646.

Hardly a day goes by without parents being warned of a new threat to their childrens well-being. Everything is dangerous: the crib, the babysitter, the school, the supermarket, the park. High-profile campaigns convince parents that their childrens health, safety, and development are constantly at risk. Parents are criticized by one child-care expert after another, but even the experts cant agree on matters as simple as whether or not it is wise to sleep next to a child. Parents dont know whom to trust; the only clear message is that they cant trust themselves. Fresh and accessible, Paranoid Parenting suggests that parental anxieties themselves are the worst influence on children. Based on new sociological research as well as dozens of interviews with parents and experts throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, this groundbreaking book will bolster parents confidence in their own judgments and enable them to bring up confident, imaginative, and capable children.