How to Raise Kids Who Aren't Assholes: Science-Based Strategies for Better Parenting, from Tots to Teens

“This book is by a science journalist, Melinda Wenner Moyer. I chose it because it’s engaging and relatable but also very helpful. Moyer asks what we should do in a society which regularly encourages children to be, as she puts it, assholes, whether through what they see on TikTok or YouTube, or what they see powerful politicians getting away with. She argues that parents need to work proactively to cultivate qualities like kindness and empathy. It’s broader than the two previous books. She talks about anti-racism and anti-sexism but she also addresses how to raise children who aren’t bullies, for example. She says makes the point that almost everything written on this focuses on what to do if your child is bullied, or how to avoid that happening, but there are plenty of children out there who are doing the bullying, so maybe we should be focusing on how to avoid our children being the bully, as well. The book includes a mixture of psychological reasoning and very specific strategies, often grounded in parenting psychology, about the specific things that parents can do. Again, this comes back to the theme which we saw in Brighouse and Swift: the importance of the parent/child relationship and particularly the need for what psychologists would call an authoritative rather than authoritarian parent/child relationship.” Read more...

The best books on The Ethics of Parenting

Elizabeth Cripps, Philosopher