Book Synopsis
A psychologist with a reputation for penetrating to the heart of complex parenting issues joins forces with a physician and bestselling author to tackle one of the most disturbing and misunderstood trends of our time — peers replacing parents in the lives of our children.
Dr. Neufeld has dubbed this phenomenon peer orientation, which refers to the tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction: for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behaviour. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; its effects are painfully evident in the context of teenage gangs and criminal activity, in tragedies such as in Littleton, Colorado; Tabor, Alberta and Victoria, B.C. It is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids. Once understood, it becomes self-evident — as do the solutions.
Hold On to Your Kids will restore parenting to its natural intuitive basis and the parent-child relationship to its rightful preeminence. The concepts, principles and practical advice contained in Hold On to Your Kids will empower parents to satisfy their children’s inborn need to find direction by turning towards a source of authority, contact and warmth.
What I Thought
So I listened to this book on Audible. And thought it was extremely long to listen to. By Chapter 13 I was craving solutions. I thought the book was quite comprehensive but I also thought it was way too extensive into the problems. If you are like me and don’t want to hear about all the ways that kids are falling apart then skip to Chapter 14 and go from there 🙂
I am, however, highly recommending this book because it gives great advice. Here are my 4 takeaways that we’ve already implemented or will be implementing with our family.
- Keep Family Time Sacred
- Book Family Vacations
- Collect Your Kids
- Build A Village Of Parental Figures In Your Kid’s Lives