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A sociologist explores the rise of excessively close parenting among today's elite

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction: No Playpen I Parenting Styles Introduction to Part I: Anxious and Engaged 1 Looking toward an Uncertain Future 2 Looking Back: Are the Good Times Gone? 3 Clear and Present Dangers 4 How They Parent: Styles, Satisfactions, and Tensions II Parenting and Technology Introduction to Part II: Do You Know Where Your Children Are? 5 Staying Connected 6 Constraining Practices 7 What They're Hiding: Spying and Surveillance 8 From Care to Control Conclusion: The Consequences of Parenting Out of Control Appendix A: Methods Appendix B: Data Analysis Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

Promotional Information

A sociologist explores the rise of excessively close parenting among today's elite

About the Author

Margaret K. Nelson is A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Sociology Emerita at Middlebury College. Most recently she is the author of Keeping Family Secrets: Shame and Silence in Memoirs from the 1950s and coauthor, with Emily K. Abel, of The Farm and Wilderness Summer Camps: Progressive Ideals in the Twentieth Century.

Reviews

"In Parenting Out of Control, sociologist Margaret K. Nelson bemoans the social isolation of today's families and describes the disservice overanxious parents ultimately do...While parents insist they want their offspring to be free thinkers, their tactics result in young adults still tethered to home." Fit Pregnancy "Nelson goes beyond simplistic criticisms of 'helicopter parents' to illuminate the complex motivations, personal histories, and practical dilemmas that affect the parenting choices of educated professionals in our changing world. Using rich interview data, she shows that their new parenting styles reflect and in turn exacerbate the growing social isolation of these mothers and fathers and even put their marriages at risk. Persuasively argued and highly readable." Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage "In her new book, Parenting Out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times, Margaret K. Nelson explores the roots of helicopter parenting, or "parenting out of control," finding a strong correlation between parental involvement and social class. Parenting Out of Control discusses the strategies and goals common to various types of parents, and the consequences (both positive and negative) for their children, through college and beyond." - Serena Golden, Inside Higher Education "[A] highly engaging analysis that elegantly situates rich and intriguing examples in a broader social context, allowing us to understand those examples in new ways." American Journal of Sociology