"Useless" yet Empowered Kids
As I was re-reading Jennifer Senior’s terrific book on parenting, All Joy and No Fun , I found the part on “the rise of the useless child” amusing and educative: “As far as children are concerned, (for today’s middle-class parents), there is no such thing as excess. If improving their children’s lives means running themselves ragged – and thinking themselves ragged – then so be it.” But it wasn’t always like this, writes Senior, as she takes a trip through history: “In the early nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution created a massive demand for child labour… Child labour on farms became especially valuable.” It was only much, much later that the transformation happened: “Childhood as we think of it today – long and sheltered, devoted almost entirely to education and emotional growth – became standard… Academics and sports. Modern childhood had begun.” And so she summarizes tongue-in-cheek: “Children had become “economically worthless but emotionally priceles...