{"id":2240,"date":"2010-05-06T06:14:36","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T06:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2010\/05\/the-idle-parent-on-being-a-lai.html"},"modified":"2010-05-06T06:14:36","modified_gmt":"2010-05-06T06:14:36","slug":"the-idle-parent-on-being-a-lai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/05\/the-idle-parent-on-being-a-lai.html","title":{"rendered":"The Idle Parent: On Being a Laid-Back Parent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you wait long enough, you will find a parenting book that endorses your style of mothering.<br \/>\nMine was just published &#8230; the book that argues why laid-back parents raise healthier and happier kids.<br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"idle parent.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/idle%20parent.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span>Appropriately titled, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Idle-Parent-Laid-Back-Parents-Healthier\/dp\/1585428000\">&#8220;The Idle Parent&#8221;<\/a> is a refreshing change to most of the parenting books on the market because this style of parenting can be done by a depressive or those of us with chronic illnesses. Author Tom Hodgkinson writes: &#8220;Welcome to the school of inactive parenting. It&#8217;s a win-win situation: less work for you and better for your children, in terms of their enjoying their everyday lives and also for their self-reliance and independence.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s not that I totally run my household this way&#8211;I&#8217;m very involved in their homework, in scheduling play dates, and shuttling to lacrosse&#8211;but this book makes me feel okay about the days that I can&#8217;t pull it all together and let them fend for themselves.<br \/>\nHere is <strong>&#8220;The Idle Parent Manifesto&#8221;<\/strong>:<br \/>\n<em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work.<\/li>\n<li>We pledge to leave our children alone.<\/li>\n<li>We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children&#8217;s lives from the moment they are born.<\/li>\n<li>We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals.<\/li>\n<li>We reject the inner Puritan.<\/li>\n<li>We don&#8217;t waste money on family days out and holidays.<\/li>\n<li>An idle parent is a thrifty parent.<\/li>\n<li>An idle parent is a creative parent.<\/li>\n<li>We lie in bed for as long as possible.<\/li>\n<li>We try not to interfere.<\/li>\n<li>We play in the fields and forests.<\/li>\n<li>We push them into the garden and shut the door so we can clean the house.<\/li>\n<li>We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small.<\/li>\n<li>Time is more important than money.<\/li>\n<li>Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><br \/>\n<strong>I wish all you moms out there a very happy Mother&#8217;s Day. Don&#8217;t forget to relax!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>*&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beyondblue1\">Click here to <b>subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thereseborchard\">click here to follow Therese on <b>Twitter<\/b><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\">click here to join <b>Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A book that argues why laid-back parents raise healthier and happier kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Idle Parent: On Being a Laid-Back Parent - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2010\/05\/the-idle-parent-on-being-a-lai.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Idle Parent: On Being a Laid-Back Parent - 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