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

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.

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!

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!