There are more and more professional parents out there. Not parents who happen to be professionals, too, but professional parents. Women (primarily) whose life's ambition is to be the "best" mother and have the "best" kids who have the "right" friends, participate in the "best" activities and have perfectly planned lives.
I've had a variety of conversations with professionals around the concepts of this type of child-centered parenting. Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld calls it "hyper-parenting," Dr. Aaron Cooper calls it "The Happiness Creed," and Dr. Jean Ilsley Clarke calls it "overindulgence." Whatever you call this phenomenon, I'm putting together an in-depth work regarding it, how it's affecting children's resiliency and, to a degree, their ability to become integrated members of society as they come into adulthood.
But more than that, I want to know how it's affecting parents:
- Is their happiness scarified?
- Or are parents finding happiness as a professional parent?
- What happens to the parent who eschews the idea that her job is to put her child first at all cost?
I want to know what people think of the prevailing attitude that no child is average, that all children can excel at anything they set their mind to and that it's a parent's responsibility to provide the opportunity to explore as many activities as possible? Have parents found this to be encouraging to their children or have some children been overwhelmed by this vast array of choices?
Please know that all replies will be held in confidence, will not be shared and will not be used without your permission. I will be happy to provide links to articles I have written about parenting to anyone who requests them.
Please contact Amanda at: myparentingstory@gmail.com
Note: This request for information and any details contained herein are considered to be property of the requester. This document, whether in its entirety or excerpts therein may not be re-distributed without permission.
0 comments:
Post a Comment