Written in a journalistic style, this book's thesis is that "modern" parents act more and more weirdly in their parenting styles (than perhaps parents in former years did).

The parents concerned appear to be people living on above average earnings, who have allowed themselves to be so swayed by others' opinions that they cannot bring up their own children in confidence: allowing themselves to be swayed by pester power (approval by children) and allowing themselves to be cowed by the opinions of other parents (lots of keep-up-with-the Joneses going on here).

There seems to be the universal message that "oh, if only they would spend some *time* with their children, rather than foisting on the poor children all these after-school clubs and societies, activities and extra classes" and an implicit message that no matter how hard a parent tries, they can never match up - either to the expectations of their peers, or, sadly to the expectations of their own parents.

Whilst there is much to find entertaining, and so much that can be (hopefully) attributed to hyperbole, the book reads too much like an extended opinion piece from a magazine: as a result, it's a book that will probably sit on my bookshelf and remain un(re)read for quite some time. ( )