Slow parenting
Encyclopedia
Slow parenting is a parenting style in which few activities are organised for children. Instead, they are allowed to explore the world at their own pace. It is a response to concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation is a style of parenting that is marked by a parent's attempts to foster their child's talents through organized leisure activities. This parenting style is commonly exhibited in middle and upper class American families...

 and the widespread trend for parents to schedule activities and classes after school
After-school activity
An after-school activity is any organized program which invites youth to participate outside of the traditional school day. Some programs are run by a primary or secondary school and some by externally funded non-profit or commercial organizations...

; to solve problems on behalf of the children, and to buy services from commercial suppliers rather than letting nature take its course.

The philosophy, part of the Slow Movement
Slow Movement
The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace. It began with Carlo Petrini's protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome in 1986 that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization...

, makes recommendations in play, toys, access to nature, watching television, and scheduled activities. The opposing view is that such children are disadvantaged because their parents do not provide as many learning opportunities.

Goals

Slow parenting aims for the goal of allowing children to be happy and satisfied with their own achievements, even though this may not make them the wealthiest or most famous.

The parents of modern children are often encouraged to give each child the best possible childhood experiences, to ensure their success and happiness in adult life. However, it is argued that this may lead to over-stressed children who do not know how to take care of themselves. Their imagination and attention span
Attention span
Attention span is the amount of time that a person can concentrate on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus one's attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals....

 are reduced. They expect constant stimulation. They are unable to cope with the unpredictability of the real world, either expecting their helicopter parent
Helicopter parent
Helicopter parent is a colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. The term was originally coined by Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay in their 1990 book...

s to intervene, or complaining about unfairness. They may not even understand who they are themselves until much later in adulthood.

Play

Play
Play (activity)
Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...

 is a natural part of childhood, which allows young people to explore and discover at their own pace. Children invest 15% of their energy in playing ( p54) demonstrating their natural inclination and the evolutionary benefit. Children have a natural skill for playing and exploring in a way that is appropriate. Other mammals also play in developing their own skills in a realistic but less dangerous environment. However, formal learning is more beneficial from the age of six ( p64). Toys, technology and an adult-imposed educational curriculum are not required, according to the philosophy.

Nature

Throughout each interpretation of slow parenting, the natural world is emphasised as an under-used resource. Letting children out to play in the garden, or other open spaces, is recommended. For more carefully considered natural experiences, especially for pre-school-age children, forest kindergartens offer people with educational and supervision experience to watch children while they play in a woodland. It has been suggested that people instinctively appreciate and benefit from natural settings and wildlife—the biophilia hypothesis
Biophilia Hypothesis
The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book entitled Biophilia.- Love of living systems :...

.

Access to nature is often denied to modern children because it conflicts with several modern issues. There may be unfamiliar people in a public park, presenting 'stranger danger
Stranger danger
Stranger danger describes the danger to children presented by strangers. The phrase is intended to sum up the danger associated with adults who children do not know. The phrase has found widespread usage and many children will hear it during their childhood lives...

'. There may be risks of personal injury, for example by walking into the branch of a tree, falling from a height or twisting an ankle on uneven ground. It is less closely supervised by adults, and it is free to use, and therefore not encouraged by commercial interests.

It is interesting to note that slow parenting advocates cite "nature deficit disorder" and strongly support organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, which promote independent youth-led outdoor activity.

Toys

Any complex toys, even "educational
Educational toys
Educational toys, are typically built for and used by children. One could make the argument that an educational toy is actually any toy. Most children are constantly interacting with and learning about the world...

" ones, limit opportunities for exploration because they already have certain features built in to their design. This is particularly true of modern branded toys which are often designed to encourage further purchases, or to follow a narrative from a specific story.

Electronic toys such as those from VTech
VTech
VTech is the common name of Video Technology Ltd. , a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of consumer electronics...

 or Leapfrog
Leapfrog
Leapfrog is a children's game in which players vault over each other's stooped backs. The first participant rests hands on knees and bends over, which is called giving a back. Games of this sort have been called by this name since at least the late sixteenth century.The next player places hands on...

 have designs which may suppress the child's imagination and limit exploration of both the world and the objects in front of them. A simpler toy such as a wooden stick would require the child to imagine what it represents, and so would be almost infinitely flexible in its use.

In an editorial on European and American attitudes to toys, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

 compared branded or militaristic toys from companies like Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...

 which are part of a commercially planned set with a limited narrative, to the European Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...

 and Playmobil
Playmobil
Playmobil is a line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group , headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany.New products and product lines developed by a 50-strong development team are frequently introduced by Brandstätter. Some of these, such as promotional products, are only produced in limited quantities...

 products which encourage imaginative play. The newspaper argued that this demonstrated the different approaches to cultivating development between the continents.

Parents sometimes guide children quite explicitly in their use of toys. For example showing them which jigsaw puzzle piece they should take next, or demonstrating the features of the latest purchase. Slow parenting would recommend that the parent stand back and let the child decide what to try. Completing the jigsaw, or getting the high score, should not be the main purpose.

Toys are marketed and sometimes designed for reasons not aligned with those of parents. These naturally include the sale of higher volumes of additional toys or accessories, but Brian Sutton-Smith
Brian Sutton-Smith
Brian Sutton-Smith is a play theorist who has spent his lifetime attempting to discover the cultural significance of play in human life, arguing that any useful definition of play must apply to both adults and children. He demonstrates that children are not innocent in their play and that adults...

, a play theorist, describes them as the primary "possessions with which children can learn the materialistic culture habits".

Parents may buy toys as a substitute for spending time with their children, or in place of loving them. Allison Pugh found that shopping catalogues present toys as solutions that would allow mothers to be good mothers without having to physically be there, even as the advertising copy evoked images of companionship and togetherness. She argues that the toys promise to perpetuate for the children the same contradictions the catalogs purport to solve for their mothers. Wendy Varney describes substitutional love, quoting Brian Sutton-Smith
Brian Sutton-Smith
Brian Sutton-Smith is a play theorist who has spent his lifetime attempting to discover the cultural significance of play in human life, arguing that any useful definition of play must apply to both adults and children. He demonstrates that children are not innocent in their play and that adults...

's belief that parents may think "I give you this toy for you to play with ... but now go away and play with it by yourself.". She finds that, in terms of love, "these toys fall short of the mark".

Television

Slow parenting does not advocate watching television. Television is not interactive; a person can watch it with little thinking and no action. It can occupy an enormous amount of time, and is very explicit. At the same time, it is often created by commercial interests with minimal investment in the program content and a maximum of advertising. The Social aspects of television
Social aspects of television
The social aspects of television are influences this medium has had on society since its inception. The belief that this impact has been dramatic has been largely unchallenged in media theory since its inception...

 are widely discussed and often considered to be negative. Introducing children to television (including families watching it together) is a recommendation to continue this lifestyle, and a discouragement to any other play or activity.

It is believed that television advertisements often encourage people further into consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...

 by promoting expensive objects which are often unnecessary and ultimately unsatisfying (a satisfied customer may not need to make further purchases). The presentation of these to people who are tired or not concentrating is a further risk to their behavioural development.

However, it is recognised that television is a convenient baby-sitter, and that some programs are enjoyable (The Idle Parent contains a list of the author's favourites). Choices might include watching only ten year old pre-recorded video tapes, or watching broadcast television with children and giving a real-time commentary on the content and its message.

After-school classes

Many modern parents send their children to after-school activities
After-school activity
An after-school activity is any organized program which invites youth to participate outside of the traditional school day. Some programs are run by a primary or secondary school and some by externally funded non-profit or commercial organizations...

 frequently; this has been called Concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation is a style of parenting that is marked by a parent's attempts to foster their child's talents through organized leisure activities. This parenting style is commonly exhibited in middle and upper class American families...

. Football, ballet, drama, tennis, swimming and art classes develop skills which are widely encouraged. However, the benefits of these activities for healthy families are less clear. In a review by Thomas Kane, no evaluations found a significant impact on achievement test scores after a year of participation in the activities.

Support for after-school activities
After-school activity
An after-school activity is any organized program which invites youth to participate outside of the traditional school day. Some programs are run by a primary or secondary school and some by externally funded non-profit or commercial organizations...

 is often in terms of childcare
Childcare
Child care means caring for and supervising child/children usually from 0–13 years of age. In the United States child care is increasingly referred to as early childhood education due to the understanding of the impact of early experiences of the developing child...

 to fill the hours between school and when parents return from work. Amongst those young people who end up with teenage pregnancies or taking drugs, delinquency peaks at around 4pm on school days. The benefit for children less at risk of such outcomes is less clear. Indeed, in her book The Price of Privilege
The Price of Privilege
The Price of Privilege is a non-fiction book by Dr Madeline Levine. The book’s primary thesis is that teenagers from affluent families have more intense psychological problems than expected.-Overview:...

, Madeline Levine
Madeline Levine
Madeline Levine, Ph. D., is a practicing psychologist in Marin County. She is the author of three books: Viewing Violence published in 1996, See No Evil: A Guide to Protecting Our Children from Media Violence published in 1998, and The Price of Privilege: how parental pressure and material...

 found that children of wealthy families, for whom organised after-school activities were commonplace, suffered more psychological dysfunctions, suggesting that such exposure may increase the risk of developing certain psychological disorders, though no investigations into childcare utilizing scientific methods have been made.

Cramming schools and private tutors push children to achieve higher academic results, for example in mathematics or literacy, than they would simply at school. Evidence has shown debatable success; the countries with the most successful schools start them when children are older, and spend fewer hours at school. Excluding other activities, and making children exhausted every evening, bears an often-forgotten cost. Even school homework is of questionable value, by comparison to the opportunity cost
Opportunity cost
Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the best alternative that is not chosen . It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices. The opportunity cost is also the...

 of missing out on other activities.

Some of the classes are motivated by a culture of frequent examinations and performance-based school admissions. In the Japanese educational model, getting in to the right high school or university depends on previous results, and studying until 9pm most nights may be seen by parents as the way to achieve it. Some schools formally evaluate the performance of children, even at primary
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...

 age, putting the children under continuous competitive pressure.

All of these activities are directed by adults, and so children are again prevented from following their own path of discovery and development. These activities have three consequences, in addition to whatever direct benefit they may achieve:
  • The time spent in classes, and spent travelling to and from each venue (typically by car) cannot be used for other activities (Opportunity cost
    Opportunity cost
    Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the best alternative that is not chosen . It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices. The opportunity cost is also the...

    ). They cannot play at their friends' houses nor look for snails in the garden.
  • Adult-organised activities reduce the child's opportunity for creativity and independence.
  • The financial cost of classes to parents is often non-trivial. Tom Hodgkinson
    Tom Hodgkinson
    Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer and the editor of The Idler, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, enjoying it as it comes rather than toiling for an imagined better future...

     emphasises that many examples of idle parenting are actually cheaper than the "modern" way.

Safety

While most families have fewer children now than they would have 100 years ago, they invest more in the well-being of each child, and wish to protect that investment.

This sometimes leads to parents stopping children from facing risk
Risk
Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity will lead to a loss . The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists . Potential losses themselves may also be called "risks"...

s. Rather than let the child work out how to handle the risk
Risk assessment
Risk assessment is a step in a risk management procedure. Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a concrete situation and a recognized threat...

, parents make the decision on their behalf. When they deem an activity to be at all risky, some parents withdraw the children completely. This attitude may also be enforced by law

Everyday life does contain risk. Slow parenting advocates would argue that in order to develop a healthy understanding of that, children must be allowed to face risks.

This would of course mean that, from time to time, children might suffer from the materialisation of a risk without parental protection. The consequences could be severe, depending on the situation. For example, in a study of 630 cases of alleged sexual abuse of children from 1985 through 1989, using a subset of 116 confirmed cases, findings indicated that 79 percent of the children of the study initially denied abuse or were tentative in disclosing. Of those who did disclose, approximately three-quarters disclosed only accidentally.

Because many parents have themselves been raised in a risk-averse
Risk aversion
Risk aversion is a concept in psychology, economics, and finance, based on the behavior of humans while exposed to uncertainty....

 way, Slow Parenting advocates would maintain that they are often unable to judge which risks are significant. For example, Stranger danger
Stranger danger
Stranger danger describes the danger to children presented by strangers. The phrase is intended to sum up the danger associated with adults who children do not know. The phrase has found widespread usage and many children will hear it during their childhood lives...

, a cornerstone of child safety, has been criticised for allegedly assuming that all strangers are dangerous, and by negative inference that all familiar people are safe. However, teaching that all familiar people are safe is not a necessary part of teaching that strangers may be dangerous and should be approached with caution.

An open letter by more than one hundred leading paediatricians, academics and authors, published in The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

, highlighted how a fast-paced and consumerist lifestyle has emphasised the fear of physical harm and the subsequent emotional and social damage to children. The newspaper then invited responses from the public and received more nearly 120 pro-slow-parenting responses within days. These highlighted frequent assessment, political interference, junk food, television, compulsory schooling, distrust of teachers and many other areas. Some suggested Forest school
Forest School
Forest School or Forrest School may refer to:* Forest School , an all-boys' secondary school in Horsham, West Sussex.* Forest School , a private school in north-east London....

s and other adventure activities, while many proposed less political interference with schools. The Slow Parenting movement and set of ideals is obviously not without its set of zealous advocates among parents.

Family

Spending time with children is always recommended for parents. The book The Price of Privilege
The Price of Privilege
The Price of Privilege is a non-fiction book by Dr Madeline Levine. The book’s primary thesis is that teenagers from affluent families have more intense psychological problems than expected.-Overview:...

finds that eating dinner together as a family is an indicator of good psychological health. Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer and the editor of The Idler, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, enjoying it as it comes rather than toiling for an imagined better future...

's ideal scenario is to be near his children, although not too near.

History and Criticism

While presented by twenty-first century authors as a new concept in reaction to the over-protection of the 1990s, it reflects ancient concepts. The Chinese philosopher Laozi
Laozi
Laozi was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching . His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism...

 was one of many ancient intellectuals to describe wu wei
Wu wei
Wu wei is an important concept of Taoism , that involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Another perspective to this is that "Wu Wei" means...

; the effortless action of knowing when not to act, and achieving a result without making an effort. In 1762, the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...

 published a volume on education, Emile: or, On Education
Emile: Or, On Education
Émile, or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the “best and most important of all my writings”. Due to a section of the book entitled “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar,” Émile was be...

. He proposed that early education should be derived less from books and more from a child's interactions with the world. John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...

's book Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Some Thoughts Concerning Education is a 1693 treatise on the education of gentlemen written by the English philosopher John Locke. For over a century, it was the most important philosophical work on education in England...

is a well known foundation for educational pedagogy from a more puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

ical standpoint. Locke highlights the importance of experiences to a child's development, and recommends developing their physical habits first. Of these, Rousseau is more consistent with slow parenting, and Locke is more against it.

Parenting styles
Parenting styles
A parenting style is a psychological construct representing standard strategies that parents use in their child rearing. There are many differing theories and opinions on the best ways to rear children, as well as differing levels of time and effort that parents are willing to invest.Many parents...

 have always varied on a spectrum between too-much and too-little. Slow parenting in various forms might be described by many as too little. Concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation
Concerted cultivation is a style of parenting that is marked by a parent's attempts to foster their child's talents through organized leisure activities. This parenting style is commonly exhibited in middle and upper class American families...

 takes the currently more popular view that children should be managed and given adult-like experiences so that they learn leadership and social skills which will maintain any existing educational inequality
Educational inequality
Educational inequality occurs where the quality of education available to pupils is closely related to their social class or status. A common view among scholars addressing this topic is that rather than succeeding in reducing societal inequality, schools and other educational establishments to...

 and benefit them in adulthood. There are undoubtedly practical benefits to after-school activities
After-school activity
An after-school activity is any organized program which invites youth to participate outside of the traditional school day. Some programs are run by a primary or secondary school and some by externally funded non-profit or commercial organizations...

 such as learning hand-eye coordination in sports, or deportment and rhetoric in performing arts.

Review of Synonyms and Variations

The idea of slow parenting has been repeated by many authors and commentators, many of whom have attached their own names. A few are briefly reviewed below:

Slow movement

In his book Under Pressure: Rescuing our Children from the culture of hyper-parenting, Carl Honoré
Carl Honoré
Carl Honoré is a Canadian journalist who wrote the internationally best-selling book In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed about the Slow Movement....

 describes a measured and caring way of stepping back and letting our children face the world themselves. Parts of the book have been serialised in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

. The author has previously written about the Slow Movement
Slow Movement
The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace. It began with Carlo Petrini's protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome in 1986 that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization...

 in his book In Praise of Slow.

In a carefully considered (but still somewhat journalistic) essay, Honoré steps through the stages of adult intervention in childhood, arguing that many adults drive their children towards goals they have chosen but which are often not suitable. The freedom to play is repeatedly endorsed, with examples of how interfering in this often makes less effective use of their time, and damages their development.

He highlights some particular educational techniques, such as the Reggio Emilia approach
Reggio Emilia approach
The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started by Loris Malaguzzi and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach...

 and Forest kindergartens, notably the Secret Garden
Secret Garden (outdoor nursery)
The is a pioneering outdoor nursery school in Letham, Fife, Scotland, for children aged 3–5 years. It is a Forest kindergarten in which children walk to a woodland every day, in almost any weather...

 in Scotland, where the mature attitude to risk is contrasted with the health-and-safety mentality that is more generally taken. Within school, testing and homework are singled out for criticism, while after-school activities are shown to take time away from more enjoyable times. Even sports, which are basically enjoyable and healthy, become detrimental when adults impose their focus on winning.

Consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...

, in particular the pester-power of Toy advertising
Toy advertising
Toy advertising is the promotion of toys through a variety of media. Advertising campaigns for toys have been criticised for turning children into consumerists and are regulated to ensure they meet defined standards...

 is noted for the way it pushes children and adults apart, converting their enthusiasm into a lust for expensive and often useless materials.

Risk aversion in Helicopter parent
Helicopter parent
Helicopter parent is a colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. The term was originally coined by Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay in their 1990 book...

s leaves children unable to handle risks. When two-thirds have never walked to the local park or a shop, and one-third have never even played in the street by themselves, they grow up to be automatons who are less useful in the workforce or their own adult lives.

The Idle Parent

The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer and the editor of The Idler, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, enjoying it as it comes rather than toiling for an imagined better future...

 in 2009 is a relaxed and entertaining alternative to over-parenting. It has also been serialised in a newspaper column in The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

. The central premise is that children can take care of themselves most of the time, and that the parents would be happier if they spent more time taking care of themselves too.

Hodgkinson's idle parenting "does not refer to slobbing out or giving up, but rather to letting go, going with the flow, a wise and merry detachment. It is, in Alduous Huxley's phrase, an 'active resignation'." (page 46). It does not have to be expensive; many activities are free, such as lighting a fire, while others are cheap, such as buying ten-year-old video tapes from Charity shop
Charity shop
A charity shop, thrift shop, thrift store, hospice shop , resale shop or op shop is a retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money.Charity shops are a type of social enterprise...

s.

He rebels both against the government in providing a rigid and rather soul-destroying school education system, and against the wage slavery of working long hours for money which is then wasted when "tired from overwork, you collapse in front of the television every night, exhaused and susceptible to suggestion" (page 87).

Alongside the jests about how much children like to work, and so should be returned to Victorian work-houses, are valuable points about letting children try to make their own breakfast (while the parents sleep), or camping in a field instead of going to an "antiseptic children's fun palace". The Idle Parent constantly moderates its zeal, for example in how completely to ban the use of television, against the excess of the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

s. Hodgkinson also moderates many of his proposals by observing that he didn't follow his own advice. He bought an in-car DVD player, and drove his children to a theme park which everyone found unsatisfactory. His son plays on the computer all the time, and he himself watches The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

 and The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

 on TV.

In the book, Hodgkinson frequently refers to Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...

's book Emile: or, On Education
Emile: Or, On Education
Émile, or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the “best and most important of all my writings”. Due to a section of the book entitled “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar,” Émile was be...

 published in 1762, and John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...

's volume Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Some Thoughts Concerning Education is a 1693 treatise on the education of gentlemen written by the English philosopher John Locke. For over a century, it was the most important philosophical work on education in England...

 of 1693. From slightly more recent times, he refers to Masanobu Fukuoka
Masanobu Fukuoka
was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, no-herbicide grain cultivation farming methods traditional to many indigenous cultures, from which he created a particular method of farming, commonly...

's 1978 volume on natural farming, The One-Straw Revolution
The One-Straw Revolution
The One Straw Revolution is a seminal book written by Masanobu Fukuoka concerning his methods of natural farming which has been highly influential with various organic farming and natural food and lifestyle movements.-External links:...

. Hodgkinson is the editor of The Idler
The Idler
There have been three British publications called The Idler:* The Idler , a series of essays by Samuel Johnson and his contemporaries.* The Idler , a literary and humorous magazine started by Jerome K...

 magazine and author of other books on related topics.

Free-Range Kids

The American journalist Lenore Skenazy
Lenore Skenazy
Lenore Skenazy writes a nationally syndicated column that appears in more than 100 papers through the Creators Syndicate. Her work offers commentary on everything from politics to family life to popular culture phenomena, and include My Dollar Store Addiction and Don't Call Me From Your Car Just...

 writes about the problems of overparenting with a particular emphasis on risk, but also the unnecessary extra cramming classes. Her book, Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had without Going Nuts with Worry and the related blog web site describe the horrors of mainstream schooling, parenting and organised activities, highlighting the unnecessary protection from risk which limits the children's experience to mature properly into independent adults, and the unnecessary training, even in using flash cards for pre-school children, which limits their opportunity to have fun or do their own thing. Despite its apparent similarities to the slow parenting movement, Skenazy's approach differs greatly in that she does not totally prohibit structured activities, electronics, or television viewing. Rather, her style of parenting is simply a modern take on the way it was done in generations past.

Confessions of a Slacker Mom

The same sentiments are expressed by Muffy Mead-Ferro in her 2004 book, Confessions of a Slacker Mom. She explains that children will develop more independence if left to take care of themselves more, while the mother can also take some time to do what she wants. The financial saving of finding activities which don't charge an entrance fee, is observed, as it was by Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson
Tom Hodgkinson is a British writer and the editor of The Idler, which he established in 1993 with his friend Gavin Pretor-Pinney. His philosophy, in his published books and articles, is of a relaxed approach to life, enjoying it as it comes rather than toiling for an imagined better future...

.

The Price of Privilege

The clinical psychologist Dr Madeline Levine
Madeline Levine
Madeline Levine, Ph. D., is a practicing psychologist in Marin County. She is the author of three books: Viewing Violence published in 1996, See No Evil: A Guide to Protecting Our Children from Media Violence published in 1998, and The Price of Privilege: how parental pressure and material...

 wrote a book, The Price of Privilege
The Price of Privilege
The Price of Privilege is a non-fiction book by Dr Madeline Levine. The book’s primary thesis is that teenagers from affluent families have more intense psychological problems than expected.-Overview:...

in which she observed how children of wealthy families were more likely to suffer psychological dysfunctions. She attributed this to parents putting too much pressure on external achievements such as school grades, but not being close enough as a caring family.

See also

  • Waldorf education
  • Forest kindergarten
  • Helicopter parent
    Helicopter parent
    Helicopter parent is a colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. The term was originally coined by Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay in their 1990 book...

     (opposite)
  • Concerted cultivation
    Concerted cultivation
    Concerted cultivation is a style of parenting that is marked by a parent's attempts to foster their child's talents through organized leisure activities. This parenting style is commonly exhibited in middle and upper class American families...

     (opposite)
  • Slow Movement
    Slow Movement
    The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace. It began with Carlo Petrini's protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome in 1986 that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization...

  • The Price of Privilege
    The Price of Privilege
    The Price of Privilege is a non-fiction book by Dr Madeline Levine. The book’s primary thesis is that teenagers from affluent families have more intense psychological problems than expected.-Overview:...

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