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Little Platoons: A Defense of Family in a Competitive Age
This eye-opening book brilliantly explores the true roots of over-parenting, and makes a case for the vital importance of family life.
Parents naturally worry about the future. They want to prepare their children to compete in an uncertain world. But often, argues political philosopher and father of three Matt Feeney, today's worried parents surrender their family's autonomy to gain a leg up in this competition.
In the American ideal, family life is a sacred and private sphere, distinct from the outside world. But in our hypercompetitive times, Feeney shows, parents have become increasingly willing to let the inner life of the family be colonized by outside forces that promise better futures for their prestigious preschools, "educational" technologies, youth sports leagues, a multitude of enrichment activities, and -- most of all -- college. A provocative, eye-opening book for any parent who suspects their kids' stuffed schedules are not serving their best interests, Little Platoons calls us to rediscover the distinctive, profound solidarity of family life.
Parents naturally worry about the future. They want to prepare their children to compete in an uncertain world. But often, argues political philosopher and father of three Matt Feeney, today's worried parents surrender their family's autonomy to gain a leg up in this competition.
In the American ideal, family life is a sacred and private sphere, distinct from the outside world. But in our hypercompetitive times, Feeney shows, parents have become increasingly willing to let the inner life of the family be colonized by outside forces that promise better futures for their prestigious preschools, "educational" technologies, youth sports leagues, a multitude of enrichment activities, and -- most of all -- college. A provocative, eye-opening book for any parent who suspects their kids' stuffed schedules are not serving their best interests, Little Platoons calls us to rediscover the distinctive, profound solidarity of family life.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published March 9, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 10, 2022
I'm a pretty unconventional parent, and I have rejected a lot of the things mainstream American parents accept by default (we've always homeschooled, I'm very restrictive with screens, my teenagers do not and will never have smart phones or be on social media, etc). I don't care what other people are doing and I truly don't care about their judgments of my parenting choices. I was mostly nodding along, like "Amen!", through the first several chapters.
But then we got to the part about college admissions. Given how consciously I've thought through and rejected so many other parenting norms, I was pretty dang shocked to realize that I had totally bought into the practice of parenting influenced by admissions striving...without even realizing it! Even if you aren't consciously thinking about college, admissions parenting permeates American parenting culture beginning the day we find out we're expecting (Mozart effect, anyone?). I'm a little disturbed to realize how much my choices for my family are subtly driven by the desire to create attractive college applicants and curate a successful story of my kid to place in front of admissions officers, who will give it approximately eight minutes of consideration. EIGHT MINUTES. That's how long application readers give each package, on average (that's from another book). And we're spending years preparing for it? Kids are literally shaping themselves according to whatever the deans of admission say they're looking for? I never realized before how much power college admissions officers exercise over every aspect of parenting. I'm stunned. And embarrassed. But so grateful for this book for really making me see something I'd never thought of before.
But then we got to the part about college admissions. Given how consciously I've thought through and rejected so many other parenting norms, I was pretty dang shocked to realize that I had totally bought into the practice of parenting influenced by admissions striving...without even realizing it! Even if you aren't consciously thinking about college, admissions parenting permeates American parenting culture beginning the day we find out we're expecting (Mozart effect, anyone?). I'm a little disturbed to realize how much my choices for my family are subtly driven by the desire to create attractive college applicants and curate a successful story of my kid to place in front of admissions officers, who will give it approximately eight minutes of consideration. EIGHT MINUTES. That's how long application readers give each package, on average (that's from another book). And we're spending years preparing for it? Kids are literally shaping themselves according to whatever the deans of admission say they're looking for? I never realized before how much power college admissions officers exercise over every aspect of parenting. I'm stunned. And embarrassed. But so grateful for this book for really making me see something I'd never thought of before.
October 13, 2021
Decent read on the outside forces attempting to penetrate family life. While he doesn't offer any true solutions to the problems he outlines, he does present some compelling arguments about college admissions and parenting styles that require a deeper conversation that I would love to have.
January 11, 2023
Boomer-neglect parenting vs. Contemporary-overparenting. Selfish ambition is bad. Yelling and anger are also bad. Strong family culture is good. Smartphones are bad. Kids playing by themselves is good. The sections on youth sports and college admissions are probably the strongest parts. Though I don't agree that learning how to manage your time is selling out to corporate America, rather, as Peter Drucker pointed out, it is a necessary virtue in a knowledge economy and probably has always been a biblical virtue.
February 4, 2023
Very deep dive on the various societal, economic, and institutional forces that have, an continue to, transform families away from units of solidarity and companionship into competitive teams focused on breeding success. I appreciated Feeney's dissection of all the ways that preschools, sports organizations, universities, and even other families, play directly into parents' fears that we are doing it all wrong and dooming our children for failure and misery. A good reminder to be aware of and fight against these fears.
June 8, 2022
The premise is interesting: we live in an age where we allow large institutions like colleges to take over our parenting decisions, and the lives we carry out as a family unit are dictated by how we optimize our childrens' college admissions chances. But the structure and context of the book itself was tough to slog through and didn't really "defend" the family all that much.
November 17, 2025
Such a wise book! Really enjoyable to read and chock full of information- references and studies. A really timely read in the current age of obsessive over parenting and the plague of fretting about the future academic (and otherwise) success of our children.
May 9, 2022
The tone of this one was a bit off for me. Appreciated many sections/insights but others were hard skips/too repetitive.
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