A review by idgetfay
The Idle Parent: Why Laid-Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids by Tom Hodgkinson

2.0

This was… painful. Eventually I just started skimming, until I was skimming so fast I basically DNFed the awful thing. The obnoxious thing about this book is there is a fair amount of decent advice in it (leave kids to their own devices, spend time in nature, unplug the TV and computer, etc)… but it’s all muddled together with bad advice, contradictions, encouragement to drink copious amounts of alcohol, and anecdotes that seem to illustrate that the author dislikes his kids immensely. There’s no science here at all. None whatsoever. Just philosophy and personal experience. I finally realized that I don’t like the author and I don’t want my life to look anything like his. If I don’t want his life, why take his advice? Especially when he seems to hate his children and doesn’t seem to think he needs to control his temper.
For a similar philosophy without all the ranting and attempts at humor try ‘Hunt, Gather, Parent’ and ‘Simplicity Parenting.’ They’re much more organized and scientific and together they more or less cover all the good advice this book has to offer.