Fragile Creatures?
Certainly, there are plenty of neglected children in America. But in middle class and upper middle class communities the coddled kid is becoming the norm, says Peter N. Stearns, a social historian at George Mason University and the author of “Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Child rearing in America.””In the last few decades the belief became popular that children are exceptionally fragile creatures and we should treat them that way,” says Stearns.The fact that many Americans are waiting longer to become parents and are having fewer children has also contributed greatly to the phenomenon. “If you have one or two children -– rather than four or five — obviously, the individual child becomes much more precious,” he says.Andrea J. Buchanan, author of “Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It,” says she sees a clear link between super parenting and today’s highly educated mommy force. When it comes time to have children, she says, many career-oriented women still end up putting
