Book Talks: The Anxious Generation
At the beginning of the summer, a few friends and I got away for a girl’s weekend. We stayed at a beautiful Airbnb up north in the Skagit Valley. We sipped drinks in the hot tub in the evening, walked around bookstores and cute little coffee shops in the afternoon and on the last morning over bagels and cream cheese, we talked about parenting.
“This book is totally changing our lives right now.” one friend gushed as we sipped our morning drinks. “My husband cried reading it.”
We all raised our eyebrows. A husband cried reading a parenting book?
“What’s it about again?” I asked taking another sip of tea.
“It’s a parenting book, but it’s about anxiety.”
“Wait, the kids anxiety or ours?” another friend laughed.
“Both!” was the response that quieted all of us.
“The author even did an interview with Dr. Becky!” and with the mention of every Millennial parent’s favorite psychologist, we were hooked.
By the end of our chat I had ordered the book, interested but a little skeptical about the whole thing. Afterall, my husband and I have always said we’re not helicopter parents.
So this summer I read the book. In the evening before bed, at the pool while the kids did their swim lessons, I read, and some chapters I re-read this book, and all I can say is…
Wow.
Social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt's "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" offers a persuasive case for favoring a play-based childhood over the prevalent phone-based upbringing of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The book promotes play-based learning as a method to furnish children with the social skills and preparedness for adulthood. It serves as a guide on how to liberate and shield our children from a world vastly different from the one in which we were raised.
This book. This book made me realize how much anxiety I was carrying around about my kid’s safety. It showed me how I had been tailing them, and not really giving them a chance to make their own mistakes. It also reminded me that we’re doing the right thing in prolonging their exposure to the internet. It also convicted me of my own phone useage. Did I tend to go on social media more when I felt lonely? Yes, yes, I did. Did I think clearer when I didn’t pick up my phone first thing in the morning?
The Anxious Generation is going to become one of those books that I go back to over and over again for guidance. It’s also one that I will continue to highly recommend to parents and Gen Z kids who are craving something more than living life through a screen.
-Helen
Get your copy here.
BONUS: I was so grateful for all of the resources I found on The Anxious Generation website; you can check those out here.