Advice on how to be good parents

Press, Issue 33845, 17 May 1975, Page 10

Advice on how to be good parents

Bringing Up Children In A Difficult Time. By Dr Benjamin Spock. Bodley Head. 284 pp. Index. N.Z. price $4.30. Growing With Children. By Joseph and Laurie Braga. 205 pp. U.S. price $2.95. Good Housekeeping Baby Book. By Dr Jane Vosper. Ebury Press. 207 pp. N.Z. price $4.95. A truth almost universally acknowledged these days is that there are few harder jobs in society than being a parent, and few for which society gives less training. However, child psychologists, doctors, educationalists and publishers seem determined to remedy the lack of training. They provide a veritable flood of books designed to pass on to bewildered and besieged parents their accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience. These three titles are the latest wave to pour from the presses. They raise the

question whether the time needed by parents to read all these books leaves any time for them to act on the advice they absorb. The first of the three. Dr Spock's "Bringing Up Children in a Difficult Time" must be treated as the most important, partlv because of the author’s fame, and partly because of the value of the book itself. Dr Spock's “Baby and Child Care” became an instant classic, and there can be few New Zealand homes where the bookcase does not contain a tattered paperback edition of this young parents’ bible. In spite of suggestions in some recent publicity. Dr Spock has not abandoned any of the principles advocated in his

Parlier book. But he does deny firmly that he was ever as permissive as Spiro Agnew claimed. (He makes this very clear in his preface, which he subtitles "The Statement of an Antipermissive Author”). In this new volume he applies those principles in discussion of specific situations and problems. So we find such chapter headings as “Three Styles of Discipline, Sex Education. Drug Use. Changing Roles for Father and Mother.” The commonsense approach of “Baby and Child Care” took the place of a sensible grandmother in our nuclear families, providing reassurance and advice for new parents. Dr Spocks new book will fill the same role for those whose children are now growing up. He still maintains the importance of love and mutual respect between all members of a family, and suggests some ways in which the family unit can be retained as a stable base in a shifting age. "Growing With Children” is one in a •eries called Human Development Books, which are designed to bridge the gap between theoretical research in the behavioural sciences and practical

application by readers. This one in the series is written by a husband and wife team. Joseph and Laurie Braga, both development psychologists at the University of Miami Medical School. It deals with the early childhood years and focuses mainly on the development in the pre-schooler of a positive selfconcept. While there seems these days to be a plethora of child development books this one does have the merit of being well and simply written without condescension. The Bragas, in parts of the book, act as editors rather than authors, and include a large number of pertinent extracts from other writers, and an excellent bibliography. Their last and longer section. “Learning is Growing.” with its emphasis on the importance of play could well be made

required reading for anyone who has any contact with young children. Last and least of the three is “Good Housekeeping Babv Book.” This is the latest edition of a book which has been reprinted constantly since 1944. It has been extensively revised by Jean Shapiro. It is a sensible practical guide for the mother with a first baby, and takes her from the start of pregancy to the time her child begins school. Some of the information provided is specifically for British conditions, e.g. maternity benefits, health visitors, but most of the book is equally valid in New Zealand. It will probably be used mainly as a useful reference in moments of stress, and it is well indexed for this purpose. A comprehensive unbiased handbook, in the main it avoids talking down to readers, and should be useful in many homes.