Idle Parenting

[dreamworld]

I've just bought and read The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson.

I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. I don't think it should all be taken seriously, but I definitely had several lightbulb moments while reading.

Basically he claims that we should just leave our kids alone. Don't bother with toys, relax about school, don't organise lots of activities, get them outside as much as possible and make them help a lot around the house.

But can this really work?

I'm firstly thinking about my own dcs - dd wants/needs heaps of structure and can't seem to occupy herself for 2 minutes. ds on the other hand would love to not have to go to school and just muck about in the woods all day every day. The book would say that's because we gave dd too much attention when she was little....

At the moment dd is spending more time than I would like on the dreaded Nintendo DS - is it too late to chuck her outside with nothing but sticks to play with?

I've not read the book but like the idea, is your dd the eldest? my eldest ds can't entertain himself that well - I've always thought it was because he had too much attention (as in PFB type) when he was a baby
I don't think its too late to ban Nintendo (or limit it at least if its too much for your liking). I recently banned the TV - in a heated removing 'privilages' moment which I regretted for the first few days - but since then ds1's creativity has improved (imaginary games - he's 4) and ds2 (2.5 yrs) has been better at fidning something to entertain himself with
Not sure about relax about school, what did he mean by that? maybe I need to read the book

Yes my dd is the eldest and certainly did get more attention than ds and dd2. I think I didn't really relax at all when she was a baby.

The nintendo/clubpenguin rule is 1 hour per day but that seems to have slipped in the holidays. Need to be firmer about it.

Relax about school...he talks about starting as late as possible like in Scandinavia where they start at 7, find a school where there is little pressure and competitiveness, but then he talks about normal people managing to afford private school which is where I stopped taking it seriously....