Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes

Author - Mary Eberstadt ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Sentinel HC was reviewed on 27-Jul-2008.

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1) Hardcover Book Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes by Sentinel HC. The author clearly knows little about raising a healthy, happy family. Anyone following the suggestions in this book probably also raises their children to be sent to evangelical bible camp to fight a bloody battle against Islam.

In the best sections of the book, Eberstadt is an insane alarmist, advocating raising children perfectly sheltered from the real world, denying basic critical medical treatment, lying to them about basic biological facts, and preventing children from learning how to fend for themselves, ever (not to mention leaving them utterly dependent on religious fiction for a basis of an ultimately flawed morality). At worst her methods equate to raising zealous christian warriors, with a militant view of Christianisty, an absolutely xenophobic view of other cultures, and a gross disrespect for people of other faiths, backgrounds, race, or political views. This is a guide toward raising your own little hate mongering, torch wielding, backwards religious nutcase. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on therapy for your children later in life, then you can afford to try some of the things suggested in this book.¤

2) Hardcover Book Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes by Sentinel HC. Contrary to popular belief, not even a "village" can substitute for a mother.

Unlike many "committed" treatments of this subject, this author adopts a scientific approach, citing studies and reasoning in a clear and cogent way.

The problem: (p. 20)
In 1975, 33 percent of children under six had employed mothers.
In 1993, 55 percent of children under six had employed mothers.
In 2000, 70 percent of children under six had employed mothers.

The ideological battles are exactly what you would expect. Militant feminists regard these numbers as good news: more women are employed. Family people regard these numbers as bad news: children are growing up without their mothers (or fathers or grandmothers, as it turns out).

But there is more bad news: enraged children, fat children, drug-addicted children (not yesterday´s drugs like marijuana but prescribed drugs, legal drugs), rage-driven pop-music-addicted children. With a younger generation like this on the way, who needs terrorists, Reconquistadores and the like? We´ve got them anyway, of course, and nothing is being done about them. To see how the problem of alienated children fits into these other problems, read While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within. America is one "village" that is bent on self-destruction.¤

3) Hardcover Book Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes by Sentinel HC. I was highly impressed by this book. Finally there is a children activist. The parenthood crisis we are living is what our society represents now: desire. Now, the woman who is the manager or president of a company is very admired and encouraged but the home-stay-mom value goes to "0". Consequently and obviously women will seek happiness into what society accepts. If we all genuinely really focus in what is best for our children well being and happiness this society will be so different.
¤

4) Hardcover Book Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes by Sentinel HC. This may be the first time in history that we have forced a generation of kids to be separated from their own parents. The results of this grand social experiment are beginning to come in. And Mary Eberstadt does not like what she sees. Nor should we.

We have embarked upon a unique historical trial of seeing what life is like for children who have been for the most part separated from their parents. And while there may have been some benefits for the parents, few people were asking the really important questions: What about the children? Is parent-absence good for the kids?

While Eberstadt recognises that correlation does not always equal causation, she rightly questions why adults always try to put a positive spin on child separation when children seem to take a much different view. We need to stop looking at this problem as if it is all about adult choices, and start focusing on the possible harm our children are experiencing.

And there seems to be plenty of harm. We have witnessed in the past few decades a huge rise in childhood problems, whether sexual promiscuity, mental health problems, the rise of the prescription drug generation, childhood obesity, and many more worrying symptoms.

Eberstadt argues that all of these problems, at least to some extent, can be tied in to parental absence. Consider the issue of obesity. Eberstadt looks at possible reasons for this, but then focuses on the real culprit: absent parents. When kids are kept home-alone, they are usually kept inside for safety sake. Thus they usually end up in front of the TV or computer, instead of running around outside.

Also, without a parent at home to prepare a healthy meal, kids are often left to live on junk food. These two factors alone explain much of the childhood obesity problem. Common sense bears this out, and research helps to confirm it. For example, we know that kids are less at risk of obesity problems if breastfed. But absent mums means no or little breast-feeding.

Eberstatd also looks at the alarming rise in psychotropic medicines. Kids are being plied with various drugs at an unprecedented level, be it for ADHD, for depression, or whatever. Yet a growing body of literature is showing that there are many risks associated with drugs such as Ritalin, Paxil, Risperdal and the various anti-depressants, and stimulants such as methylphenidate.

Why are we drugging our children as such high levels, even with the known risks? Eberstadt again suggests that parental absence is part of the reason our children are experiencing so many problems. Most of these drugs are really behaviour-management or performance-enhancing drugs, designed to give a technological quick-fix to what may just be old-fashioned discipline problems, or what may be largely manageable when a parent is around.

But with parents absent in such great numbers, more and more of our child-carers resort to drugs to fix the problem. And the ironic thing is, it may well be the stresses and unhappiness caused by parental separation that is getting the kids into more trouble to begin with.

Eberstadt also looks at the day-care industry, and how we are allowing a generation of kids to be looked after by strangers. She examines the huge increase in emotional and psychological problems plaguing our children. She also looks at the rise of violence among children.

All in all, our kids are experiencing an unprecedented tidal wave of physical, social and psychological problems that we normally associate with adults. And these problems have arisen at exactly the same time that we have seen absentee parenting mushroom.

Adults living in denial will want to say that the two are simply not connected. Perhaps they are right. But the correlation seems to be strong, and some type of causality seems to be involved. If so, then for the sake of our children we need to slow down and take stock of how this rise in parent-separation is affecting our children.

Eberstadt finishes her volume with a simple plea. She does not offer a checklist of policy options or steps on what must be done. She instead summarises the findings of this book by stating what most of us should know by common sense and experience: children do better, generally speaking, when parental absence is minimised, and they do worse, generally speaking, when it is not.

Parental presence will not solve all the problems mentioned in this book, but it will help quite a bit. But unless we are ready to get real about the damage being done to our children by parental absence, things will continue to worsen. We can turn things around if we are really concerned about the welfare of our children. And this book helps point us in the right direction.¤

5) Hardcover Book Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes by Sentinel HC. I live in a blue state, and mostly agree with what most people think of when they think "blue state". However, I questioned my liberal thinkiing while reading this book. Why? Because I have been concerned this year with how many 6th graders in my neighborhood come home to an empty house. And I see how divorce has affected my son´s young friends.

I have two children, both for whom medication has been recommended. We tried it with one, and the best school year he´s had was this year when he was off ANY meds. Why? We have focused on teaching the skills my son´s lacked, among them: study skills, organizational skills, social skills and using behavior modification. I can´t say they will never be on any meds for their entire school career, but so far what we are doing is working better than any medication did - and with no side effects! I took my one son to many doctors and psychiatrists to learn to deal with his "problem behaviors". All agreed we should medicate, and prescribed increasingly serious meds. I wanted advice on how to help them, instead I received numerous prescriptions.

My younger son is on the autistic spectrum, and I do disagree with some of Eberstadt´s "findings". She states how the media or medical establishment does not relate studies showing how increased breast feeding can lower the incidence of autism. Yet, many autistic kids have been breast fed. More significant, she relates how autism is being diagnosed at an alarming rate compared to even 10 years ago. But during my parent´s generation, breast feeding was not the norm, and there are not high incidences of autism among my peer group.¤

6) Hardcover Book Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes by Sentinel HC. Why are there so many troubled kids these days, diagnosed with learning disabilities or behavioral problems? Why is child obesity out of control? Why are teenagers contracting herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases at unprecedented rates?

In Home-Alone America, scholar Mary Eberstadt offers an answer that’s widely suspected but too politically incorrect to say out loud. A few decades ago, most children came home from school to a mother who monitored their diets, prevented sexual activity or delinquency by her mere presence, and provided a basic emotional safety net. Most children also lived with their biological father.

But today, most mothers work outside the home, and many fathers are divorced and living far away because society promotes adult fulfillment at the expense of our children. Too many kids now feel like just another chore to be juggled—dropped off at day care; handed over to a nanny; left in front of a television or a computer; and often simply home alone, with easy access to all kinds of trouble.

Eberstadt offers hard data proving that absent parents are the common denominator of many recent epidemics, including obesity, STDs, mental health problems of all kinds, and the increased use of psychiatric medication by even very young children. Drawing on a wide range of medical and social science literature as well as popular culture, she reopens the forbidden question of just how much children need their parents—especially their mothers.

Home-Alone America issues a radical challenge to the way America’s kids are being raised. Like The Bell Curve or The Nurture Assumption, it’s a controversial book that many will disagree with, but no one can ignore.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 24-Aug-2008, 15952300419781595230041, 3X0-411-8X1-381-781-G0B-JOB-4GB-8

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