How Adults Are Hijacking Childhood: A HarperOne Select

by Carl Honoré

This selection from Carl Honore’s Under Pressure explores the history of childhood, including social trends and cultural movements that have contributed to the current practice of hyperparenting.

In How Adults Are Ruining Childhood bestselling author Carl Honore explores the contradictions inherent in modern parenting. We want children to strive for high-achieving adulthood while also enjoying a childhood full of joy and free of danger. We tell our children to “grow up” and then bristle when they do. We expect them to ful?ll our dreams and yet remain true to themselves. The common thread, of course, is that through the ages children have never chosen their own childhood. Adults have always called the tune. Today it seems to be more about the adults than ever.

26 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2012

About the author

Carl Honoré was born in Scotland, but grew up in Edmonton, Canada. After studying history and Italian at Edinburgh University, he worked with street children in Brazil. This later inspired him to take up journalism and, since 1991, he has written from all over Europe and South America, spending three years in Buenos Aires along the way. His work has appeared in publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Economist, Observer, American Way, National Post, Globe and Mail, Houston Chronicle, and Miami Herald. His first book, In Praise of Slowness, was an international bestseller. He is also the author of Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting.

Reviews

[Greg]

Good, but this is really just a book excerpt.

[Kristi]

A very brief ebook. Some interesting historical and up-to-date parenting facts and opinions were presented, but solutions to modern day parenting dilemmas were merely inferred.