Review of synonyms and variations

The idea of slow parenting has been repeated by many authors and commentators, many of whom have attached their own names. A few are briefly reviewed below:

Slow movement

In his book Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children From the Culture of Hyper-parenting,^[3] Carl Honoré describes a measured and caring way of stepping back and letting our children face the world themselves. Parts of UP have been serialized in the ''Daily Telegraph''. The author has previously written about the Slow Movement in his book In Praise of Slow.

In a carefully considered (but still somewhat journalistic) essay, Honoré steps through the stages of adult intervention in childhood, arguing that many adults drive their children towards goals they have chosen but which are often not suitable. The freedom to play is repeatedly endorsed, with examples of how interfering in this often makes less effective use of their time, and damages their development.

He highlights some particular educational techniques, such as the Reggio Emilia approach and Forest kindergartens, notably the Secret Garden in Scotland, where the mature attitude to risk is contrasted with the health-and-safety mentality that is more generally taken. Within school, testing and homework are singled out for criticism, while after-school activities are shown to take time away from more enjoyable times. Even sports, which are basically enjoyable and healthy, become detrimental when adults impose their focus on winning.

Consumerism, in particular the pester-power of toy advertising is noted for the way it pushes children and adults apart, converting their enthusiasm into a lust for costly and often useless goods.

Risk aversion in helicopter parents leaves children unable to handle risks. When two-thirds have never walked to the local park or a shop, and a third have never even played in the street by themselves, they grow up to be automatons who are less useful in the workforce or their own adult lives.

The Idle Parent

The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson in 2009 is a relaxed and entertaining alternative to over-parenting. It has also been serialised in a newspaper column in the Telegraph. The central premise is that children can take care of themselves most of the time, and that the parents would be happier if they spent more time taking care of themselves too.

Hodgkinson's idle parenting "does not refer to slobbing out or giving up, but rather to letting go, going with the flow, a wise and merry detachment. It is, in Alduous Huxley's phrase, an 'active resignation'." (page 46). IP does not have to be costly: Many activities are free, such as lighting a fire; while others are cheap, such as buying 10-year-old video tapes from charity shops.

Hodgkinson rebels both against the government in providing a rigid and rather soul-destroying school education system, and against the wage slavery of working long hours for money that is then wasted when "tired from overwork, you collapse in front of the television every night, exhausted and susceptible to suggestion" (page 87).

Alongside the jests about how much children like to work, and so should be returned to Victorian workhouses, are valuable points about letting children try to make their own breakfast (while the parents sleep), or camping in a field instead of going to an "antiseptic children's fun palace". The Idle Parent constantly moderates its zeal, for example in how completely to ban the use of television, against the excess of the Puritans. Hodgkinson also moderates many of his proposals by observing that he didn't follow his own advice. He bought an in-car DVD player, and drove his children to a theme park that everyone found unsatisfactory. His son plays on the computer all the time, and he himself watches The Simpsons and The Sopranos on TV.

In the book, Hodgkinson frequently refers to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's book Emile: or, On Education published in 1762, and John Locke's volume Some Thoughts Concerning Education of 1693. From slightly more recent times, he refers to Masanobu Fukuoka's 1978 volume on natural farming, The One-Straw Revolution. Hodgkinson is the editor of The Idler magazine and author of other books on related topics.

Free-Range Kids

American journalist Lenore Skenazy writes about the problems of overparenting with a particular emphasis on risk, but also the unnecessary extra cramming classes. Her book,Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had without Going Nuts with Worry and her related website^[16] describe the horrors of mainstream schooling, parenting, and organized activities, highlighting the unnecessary protection from risk that limits children's opportunity to mature properly into independent adults, and the unnecessary training, even in using flash cards for preschoolers, thereby limiting their opportunity to have fun or do their own thing. Despite its apparent similarities to the slow parenting movement, Skenazy's approach differs greatly in that she does not advocate prohibiting structured activities, electronics, or television viewing. Rather, her style of parenting is simply a modern take on the way it was done in generations past.

Confessions of a Slacker Mom

The same sentiments are expressed by Muffy Mead-Ferro in her 2004 book, Confessions of a Slacker Mom.^[17] wherein she explains that children develop more independence if left to fend for themselves more, while mothers can also take some time to do what they want. The financial savings of finding activities that don't charge an entrance fee, is observed, as it was by Tom Hodgkinson.

The Price of Privilege

Clinical psychologist Dr Madeline Levine wrote The Price of Privilege^[1] wherein she observed how children of wealthy families are more likely to suffer psychological dysfunctions. Dr. Levine attributed this to parents putting too much pressure on external achievements such as grades, yet not being close enough as a caring family.