No More Push Parenting

Book excerpt: CAN PARENTS AVOID THE OVERACHIEVEMENT TRAP AND STILL RAISE SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN? In America's hypercompetitive culture, children are being suffocated by our quest to make them the best. As competitive parenting has been on the rise since the 1980s, so have rates of teen suicide, eating disorders, depression, and drug use. Yet the cycle of "push parenting" doesn’t show signs of slowing down. Our children today are competing with classmates who began listening to Mozart in utero and were enrolled in educational classes at the ages of two and three. Under these circumstances, parents feel that they cannot afford to opt out. No More Push Parenting offers solutions for parents caught up by the need to push their children to the top, those parents who don't want to push but worry that their children may not measure up. With her fifteen-plus years of clinical experience, Dr. Elisabeth Guthrie provides targeted, prescriptive alternatives to the problem of push parenting, supported by the illustrative case studies of real children who are and aren't succeeding--and why. She explores the ways in which children are hindered emotionally and intellectually by the pressure to succeed that they often feel from parents on a daily basis. Helping parents discover the fine line between good parenting and pressure parenting, Dr. Guthrie provides them with the permission to do less pushing without sacrificing their ideals for their children, and offers techniques that they can use to deflect the pressure to push while still providing healthy encouragement. With tips for enhancing the development of every child's unique set of talents, the book is a vital reality check for anyone concerned about what's really best for kids.