To think that surely there are more than 8 people on the whole of MN who have read 'Toxic Childhood' and are excited about the upcoming webchat?

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Has nobody on here read it?

I agree with cory. And the Uffizi is full of madonnas, tit upon tit upon tit. I can think of better Italian galleries. Plus the queues are very long, even before you get to the endless madonnas. Anyone would be grumpy.

Here's a fair comment by Julian Grenier that echoes cory's point.

I read it and agreed with most of it, but I can't think of any questions!

will definitely be reading and lurking though!

I've read it, agree with cory.

Wow, interesting article! I must have missed all that

I read it a long time ago now and all I remember is advice to go outside a lot with your children, let them go out alone when they're old enough without fearing there's a madman on every corner, eat at the table as a family and make sure they sleep well! Common sense as I said, and I remember thinking that the people who read the book will likely already be doing all these things, and those who aren't won't be reading the book.

I'm going to have a look at it again to find all the scaremongering comments on the "underclass" that I totally missed the first time!

I am reading it now and agree with most of what she is saying. I do think it's stating the obvious and common sense but unfortunatly that can be needed. There's not much common sense about these days.

I also like her writing style. She's not blaming parents or trying to make you feel like a bad parent. She's stating cultural problems that DO exist and need addressing.

The bits about the difference in class are hard to read I agree, especially if you are living in a 'deprived area' as she puts it, but that doesn't mean it's not true. I think the key is not to take it personally.

I also think she is looking at the worst case senario, and I am 100% sure there are plenty of children her book won't apply to. Plenty for who she has got it bang on, with the majority somewhere inbetween.

There are parts I don't agree with.

I have only read half, I will come back when I've finished it.

And, er, those that are posting who haven't actually read it because of the title...how can you post an opinion about something you haven't read? "you can't judge a book by it's cover" and all that.

I read it when DD was tiny and I was still really hormonal. Then I spent months convinced that she would turn into a serial killer if she watched even a minute of TV.

The book did have some interesting points but most of it is just common sense.

"I think the key is not to take it personally."

That is exactly the thing that riles me. Where is the point of a parenting book that you are not supposed to take personally, that is about other people's problems? First she sets out all these concerns about modern society, and then she tells the middle class reader in her coda to every chapter that "of course this isn't really about us, it's about those feckless working class people". What she does not provide is a single idea on how to change the situation for the really serious cases described in the Mind the Gap section. It's sole function seems to be to tell us "don't get upset now, you are still much better than that feckless teenager down the road".

Though how the girl outside the Ufizzi is supposed to fit into that scheme, I really do not know. Are the feckless working classes particularly known for dragging their unfortunate offspring round the Raphaels?

Also get annoyed by the assumption that teachers are always right. Most of my family have been teachers. They're not some superior godlike creatures that always have insights denied to the rest of us.

Although I actually agreed with lots of what was being said I personally found the tone as offensive in its own way (and easily as patronising) as 'she who shall not be named'

We spend our whole life trying to accentuate the positive with our own kids, and then we choose to beat ourselves up by wallowing in these tomes of how we are destroying our kids. Quite surreal. We get enough bashing as parents without adding self-flagellation (sp?)to the mix.

I would suggest that anyont thinking of buying this should go out and but 'Natures Playground' instead - you'll end up changing your life in exactly the same way, but you'll be coming at it with enthusiasm and not a combination of dread and smugness.

I've read it, I thought it was brilliant. I also have detoxing childhood.

When is the web chat ??

cory - the girl outside the Uffizi is part of the uncultured nouveau riche who can afford to go on holiday all over the world but don't really understand what they are seeing when they get there .

But I agree, Sue Palmer is displaying just the same snobbery here as elsewhere.

Hmm. Slightly embarrassinglyly, reading the following posts I realise that I haven't in fact read it! Read DEtoxing Childhood, which I did like... Soz for potentially misleading the innocent.

I have read 21st century boys by teh same author and was very disappointed. Lack of robust research to back up many points, or else strongly contested research was only used in a one-soded way to back up the author's viewpoint when it suited.

A very much anecdotal style rather than evidence-based.

I know there is mean to be a book coming out about 21st century girls at some point but since the majority of 'Boys' could be applied to either sex, I can't think how it will be very different.

I think the book about girls might feature the colour Sue Palmer thinks you shouldn't dress your daughter in - on that note here's some science from the BBC.

Personally I prefer the book 'Free-Range Kids', feeling for its US author Leonore Skenazy who was dubbed 'America's Worst Mom' for letting her 9 year old son ride home alone on the NY subway. Our dcs have always been fairly free-range, there has been disapproval. But it isn't surprising that parents are fearful.