Be the Parent, Please
Be the Parent, Please
Stop Banning Seesaws and Start Banning Snapchat: Strategies for Solving the Real Parenting Problems
Silicon Valley tech giants design their products to hook even the most sophisticated adults. Imagine, then, the influence these devices have on the developing minds of young people. Touted as tools of the future that kids must master to ensure a job in the new economy, they are, in reality, the culprits, stealing our children’s attention, making them anxious, agitated, and depressed.
What’s worse, schools across the country are going digital under the assumption that a tablet with a wi-fi connection is what’s lacking in our education system. Add to that the legion of dangers invited by unregulated access to the internet, and it becomes clear that our screen-saturated culture is eroding some of the essential aspects of childhood.
In Be the Parent, Please, former New York Post and Wall Street Journal writer Naomi Schaefer Riley draws from her experience as a mother of three and delves into the latest research on the harmful effects that excessive technology usage has on a child’s intellectual, social, and moral formation. Throughout each chapter, she backs up her discussion with “tough mommy tips”—realistic advice for parents who want to take back control from tech.
With the alluring array of gadgets, apps, and utopian promises expanding by the day, engulfing more and more of our lives, Be the Parent, Please is both a wake-up call and an indispensable guide for parents who care about the healthy development of their children.
‘Be the Parent, Please is among the sternest of [the]recent books about the dangers of computerized childhood, and perhaps for exactly that reason, it’s also the most compelling.’
—Joseph Bottom, Washington Free Beacon
‘If you’re a parent, you’re probably not going to enjoy reading Naomi Schaefer Riley’s new book Be The Parent, Please: Stop Banning Seesaws and Start Banning Snapchat: Strategies for Solving the Real Parenting Problems. But that’s precisely why you should. Riley’s book largely avoids parent shaming, but she does offer some real talk for parents about technology use—from babies to teens. She provides not just the jarring facts but also suggestions on how to curb the use and alleviate parent guilt about depriving our kids of technology, something we have been fooled into believing we need far more than we do.’
—Bethany Mandel, Federalist
‘Be the Parent, Please is one of the most thought-provoking and jarring books I’ve read in a long time. When I finished the book, I literally thought to myself, ‘I wish I’d read this ten years ago!’ Engagingly written and filled with fascinating studies, this important book should be a conversation changer.’
—Amy Chua, Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and The Triple Package
‘Most parents know the right things to do but often lack the courage to do them. Riley’s excellent new book, Be the Parent, Please, provides the rationale, research, and encouragement that parents need—to resist the commercial culture that wants to profit from the free time of small children, to shield kids from the vast, unmonitored experiment that is the online life as lived by very young children; to be the parent and not the enabling pal of their children. This is a book that every parent—and every person who cares about children and childhood—should read. Five stars.’
—Caitlin Flanagan, contributing editor to the Atlantic and author of Girl Land
‘Just as it’s hard to tell our kids, ‘No snack till dinner’—even when we have a purse full of Pirate’s Booty—it’s even harder to say, ‘No screen time’ when our smartphone is ringing in our pocket. In this well-researched, non-hectoring book, Riley helps us understand why we must ‘Be the Parent’ and actually how to do it.’
—Lenore Skenazy, founder of Free-Range Kids
‘We need more books like Be the Parent, Please! Riley calls parents a wake-up call to put healthy boundaries regarding technology and kids. A must-read for any parent fumbling around in this digital world of parenting.’
—Brooke Shannon, founder of Wait Until 8th
Chapter 1: What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us / 7
Chapter 2: Babies Aren’t Meant to Be Einsteins / 35
Chapter 3: Are You Preparing Your Child for School or Las Vegas? / 53
Chapter 4: Drop the Call—and the Phone While You Are at It / 71
Chapter 5: The Price of Internet Access is Eternal Vigilance / 93
Chapter 6: Think American Education Can’t Get Worse? Put iPads in the Classroom / 123
Chapter 7: Just Say No / 155
Chapter 8: Less Technology, More Independence / 175
Conclusion / 203
Postscript: The Tech-lash / 225
Notes / 231
Index / 247
