Carl Honoré is a writer and journalist, author of the successful book “Praise of Slowness”, defender of the “Slow” philosophy, in which his followers try to recover the calm lost in developed societies to savor life in another way, that is to say , live without hurry.
Honoré has recently published his new book "Under pressure", a very adequate reflection in these times where parents exercise hyper control over their children. In which a fair scolding traumatizes, a cartoon deforms the mind, eating a lollipop condemns them to obesity, or that reading the story of the Little Red Riding Hood is not suitable for its development. We censor things that we did in our childhood, and as if that were not enough we demand that they be the most intelligent, the most responsible and brilliant.
In his own words the book defines how childhood has been kidnapped by adults in a way never seen before in history and investigates how the natural instinct to love our children has become wanting them to be better than other children and better in all things, an aspect that is hurting children, parents and society.
But the book is not all bleak, warns Honoré. On the contrary, it traces the ways in which we can begin to rescue children from the excesses of the early 21st century. The book based on the latest scientific research, interviews of experts and families from around the world, shows that raising children does not have to be a mix between a competitive sport and the process of manufacturing a product similar to training of laboratory rats. Childhood, says its author, is always changing and has been defined by adults. But it seems that a point has been reached in which the concept of childhood is being deformed more than ever by the fantasies of adults, their fears, their anxieties and their busy schedules. Each aspect of childhood such as education, safety, discipline, sports, games etc. They are now set to fit adults instead of children. We are living in a culture that tells us that childhood is too precious to be left only to children.
Carl Honoré hopes that the book will inspire readers to trust their natural instincts, to remember that children are not projects or pets, but people. Like other parents, the author wants his children to be healthy, happy and successful, but what he really wants is that Your children have a childhood worthy of that name. With this opening I am already looking forward to the Spanish edition, because it is a theme that has always disturbed me and that will surely make us reflect on how to raise our children, remember our own childhood when the upbringing was not so "intellectualized" "and get carried away more by the opinions of the logic of the heart.
