Idolising Children

Book excerpt: Obsessed with our own youth and wanting perfect, genius children who live in a world of designer clothes and toys, it's time for us to find new ways of parenting and a new kind of childhood. With humour, insight and emotion, Daniel Donahoo reflects on the place of children in our society by looking at everything from fertility rates, childcare, the role of the media and the day-to-day joys and challenges of being a parent. Donahoo argues that idolising is a form of worship that adversely affects our children's development in their early years, and creates citizens who no longer understand their roles and responsibilities. It makes parents feel unnecessarily guilty and anxious. Without blame or finger-pointing, Idolising Children examines how we arrived here and looks at what needs to change so that communities as a whole are responsible for raising children. Book jacket.