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Stress not good for your child

Last Updated 20 May 2010, 16:18 IST
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Clinical psychologist Nigel Latta’s words of wisdom are the basis of a new book, “Politically Incorrect Parenting”, which starts out saying there are way too many parenting books, and even more advice, out there, most of which parents should ignore.

Latta, a bestselling author in his native Australia and TV show host who specialises in working with children with behavioural problems, is a father of two boys aged 10 and 7.
He said that most parents were overly, and unnecessarily, worried about damaging their children, and yet the first step to becoming a better parent was to let go of that fear.
“We need far less advice. We have too much advice. So what do I do? I write an advice book so that people listen,” he said in a recent interview.

“Modern parents just want to do the best, but we Google stuff and end up with 26 million things that say if you don’t raise your kids this way, they’ll end up ugly, stupid and not have a decent job. If only people would calm down!”

Latta believes that sometime between the 1980s and 1990s, the whole “modern parenting” ideology took over, bringing with it truckloads of guilt and anxiety to parents who are “assailed with new information about all the stuff we’re doing wrong and all the stuff that could go wrong”.

But a lot of that paranoia is unfounded, he said, and driven partly by companies that sell baby items that our parents never needed, such as special bedding and state-of-the-art strollers.

The solution? According to Latta, let your children make mistakes, let them fall and get dirty, and most importantly, have a lot more faith in them - and in yourself. “Everything has become so bloody complicated,” he writes in the book. “Many of the simple pleasures are being eroded away because we're so frightened, anxious, and self-doubting.”

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(Published 20 May 2010, 16:18 IST)

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