By Sarah Ockwell-Smith (author)
"An analysis of children’s place in society and an empowering call to arms to defend their human rights"
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The fourteenth book from this bestselling childcare and parenting expert is designed to be provocative. She wants the reader to re-examine their own childhood, as well as their parenting experience and to look more widely at how our society treats children.
It is an altogether fascinating blend of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and current affairs, written in an accessible, chatty, myth-busting style, but with each chapter fully backed up by references. As a mother of four, like the author, I found myself forcefully agreeing as I was reading about the potential harm caused by so called sleep training and historical attitudes to discipline still widely used today, particularly in education. I particularly liked the underlying passion for fighting injustice.
If you struggle to see what childcare has to do with current affairs and injustice then you are exactly the audience for this book, which will be relevant to educators, policy makers and any professionals working with children and their carers. I perhaps am less enthusiastic about using the term childism as a blanket term to describe the problem and putting it alongside sexism, racism, etc but only because it seems clumsy. In fact, I might go as far as to say that the attitudes to children in society are part and parcel of overall sexism and sexist attitudes to women.
Indeed, the author has some very cogent feminist arguments about the status of childcare. Her political arguments for society needing to invest in proper childcare and proper support for families are very powerful, as are the arguments for investing in an improved education system.
The book focuses most on the early years, as is to be expected, because of all the research which clearly demonstrate that harsh treatment in childhood really does cause long-term psychological damage. In previous books she has coined the term ‘gentle parenting,’ also advocated here as the way forward, but extended beyond the home to how society should treat children. Neither permissive nor authoritarian, but authoritative and supportive.
Her fundamental point is about children’s human rights and many chapters conclude with challenging the reader to consider questions related to the Articles of either the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. For example, why, in many countries are children the only humans we are still legally allowed to hit? This thought provoking and valuable book concludes with a quote from Nelson Mandela “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”. Unarguably true!
Society is making great strides in increasing awareness of oppression and injustice, but one group remains mistreated: children.
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Commonly recommended parenting and discipline methods treat children in ways that would cause uproar if adults were treated similarly. Children's needs and feelings are frequently dismissed and ignored by adults. Children are taught to blindly obey adults in the name of 'respect', although respect is so rarely shown to them.
We are a society that is afraid of treating children kindly, as evidenced by the almost constant uproar and ridicule of the 'gentle parenting' movement.
In this timely book, bestselling author and parenting expert Sarah Ockwell-Smith blends childcare history, sociology, psychology and current affairs to raise awareness of childism - the unconscious discrimination of children in our world - and why it impacts everybody.
Essential for parents, carers, teachers and anybody who works with children, Because I Said So! is both a thought-provoking guide and an urgent call to action. It will help you to understand your own upbringing and how this has shaped your beliefs and behaviour; prompt you to consider the prevalence of childism in society today, so that you can change the way you look after the children in your care or reinforce the approach you are already taking; and consider how we can transform the way our society treats children to create positive, lasting change for generations to come.
Childism is an issue that has been ignored and avoided for far too long. If we want to change the world for the better, we must start with treating our children better.
Sarah Ockwell-Smith is a well-known parenting expert and author who specialises in the psychology and science of parenting, 'gentle parenting' and attachment theory, with a particular interest in child sleep. Sarah is famed for her gentle, science-rich, yet easy-to-read books, and her down-to-earth manner and ability to translate her vast knowledge of parenting science into easy-to-understand language. The mother of four school-aged children (three boys and one girl), Sarah lives with her family, cats and numerous ducks and chickens in a 350-year-old cottage in rural Essex, UK.
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Society is making great strides in increasing awareness of oppression and injustice, but one group remains mistreated: children. Commonly recommended parenting and discipline methods treat children in ways that would cause uproar if adults were treated similarly.
Because I Said So features in the following genres: Books for Teachers, Recommendations, Parenting Books, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Reference Works
Paperback. £15.29, down from the £16.99 cover price. In Stock.
Because I Said So was written by Sarah Ockwell-Smith and published by Little, Brown Book Group
Because I Said So has 234 pages
£15.29, reduced from £16.99. In Stock.
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