Look past the title of this one for my latest #bookstr review
Stefan Molyneux’s “Peaceful Parenting” was recommended to me by a friend who is a fan of his who thought I’d enjoy it.
The ethics of the parental relationship with children through a moral and philosophical lens is a big focus of this work, it’s much less “parenting manual” and moreso cause and effect discussions about parental choices and how they play out with children.
I appreciate that Molyneux took on the subject, it’s clearly an important one and as he frequently reiterates; our society claims to put children above all, but in observable reality clearly does not.
And that leads to my biggest gripe with this book - the frequent reiterations. Molyneux will use 3 examples to illustrate and emphasise every single point he’s making. It’s tedious and a proper editor would have slashed this book in half. Why he felt the need to be so verbose I’m not sure, it’s clearly designed for philosophical libertarian types who gain nothing from such mental coddling.
Because of that I found myself enjoying this in fits and starts. Too slow and monotonous, and then occasionally punctuated by brilliant philosophical insight.
Despite my criticisms I would actually recommend this book to everyone (there is a condensed version I found out after finishing). People claim to care so much about the future and pin so much on the next generation and then completely discount them from moral and ethical consideration because of the power imbalance in parent-child relationships - this book, whilst Molyneux drones on, allows for reflection on those ideas.
“Low time preference parenting” might have been a better title as really it’s about forcing adults to consider their actions and the results they will have on children as they grow into adults.
You can skip the last section where he backs his points with data, it’s interesting in a nerdy way but completely unnecessary as his points stand without this.
Overall a good book on a worthwhile subject that needed a better editor.
Stefan Molyneux’s “Peaceful Parenting” was recommended to me by a friend who is a fan of his who thought I’d enjoy it.
The ethics of the parental relationship with children through a moral and philosophical lens is a big focus of this work, it’s much less “parenting manual” and moreso cause and effect discussions about parental choices and how they play out with children.
I appreciate that Molyneux took on the subject, it’s clearly an important one and as he frequently reiterates; our society claims to put children above all, but in observable reality clearly does not.
And that leads to my biggest gripe with this book - the frequent reiterations. Molyneux will use 3 examples to illustrate and emphasise every single point he’s making. It’s tedious and a proper editor would have slashed this book in half. Why he felt the need to be so verbose I’m not sure, it’s clearly designed for philosophical libertarian types who gain nothing from such mental coddling.
Because of that I found myself enjoying this in fits and starts. Too slow and monotonous, and then occasionally punctuated by brilliant philosophical insight.
Despite my criticisms I would actually recommend this book to everyone (there is a condensed version I found out after finishing). People claim to care so much about the future and pin so much on the next generation and then completely discount them from moral and ethical consideration because of the power imbalance in parent-child relationships - this book, whilst Molyneux drones on, allows for reflection on those ideas.
“Low time preference parenting” might have been a better title as really it’s about forcing adults to consider their actions and the results they will have on children as they grow into adults.
You can skip the last section where he backs his points with data, it’s interesting in a nerdy way but completely unnecessary as his points stand without this.
Overall a good book on a worthwhile subject that needed a better editor.