or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
31 used & new from £2.50

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids
 
See larger image
 

The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids (Hardcover)

by Tom Hodgkinson (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
Price: £8.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £6.01 (40%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, February 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
30 new from £2.50 1 used from £8.09

Frequently Bought Together

The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids + How to be Free + How to be Idle
Total RRP: £32.97
Price For All Three: £19.60

Show availability and delivery details

  • This item: The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids by Tom Hodgkinson

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • How to be Free by Tom Hodgkinson

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

How to be Idle

How to be Idle

by Tom Hodgkinson
4.2 out of 5 stars (18)  £5.55
The Idler 42: Smash the System

The Idler 42: Smash the System

by Tom Hodgkinson
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £12.19
How to be Free

How to be Free

by Tom Hodgkinson
4.2 out of 5 stars (36)  £5.07
The Book of Idle Pleasures

The Book of Idle Pleasures

by Tom Hodgkinson
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £6.69
The "Idler": Carnal Knowledge Issue 40

The "Idler": Carnal Knowledge Issue 40

by Tom Hodgkinson
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £6.95
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (5 Mar 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 024114373X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241143735
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 23,765 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   How to talk with children opens new browser window
www.fpa.org.uk/  -  about sex, relationships & growing up. Get the confidence & skills now
  
 

Product Description

Review

`The sort of book which any self-respecting child would wish their parents had read. Gently comedic on the surface, it is a book about serious freedom underneath. Profoundly sane, kind and endearing, it is written with a huge generosity of spirit as an act of family-liberation.' --Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental Journey

'Wise, funny, practical and personal, The Idle Parent puts the fun back into parenting.' Oliver James

Review

'Wise, funny, practical and personal, The Idle Parent puts the fun back into parenting.'

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids
77% buy the item featured on this page:
The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids 4.7 out of 5 stars (6)
£8.98
How to be Free
9% buy
How to be Free 4.2 out of 5 stars (36)
£5.07
How to be Idle
8% buy
How to be Idle 4.2 out of 5 stars (18)
£5.55
The Idler 42: Smash the System
4% buy
The Idler 42: Smash the System 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£12.19

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best parenting book I've read (and I've read a few....!), 16 Mar 2009
By J. M. Bezzant (Solihull, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a superb book which has helped me to re-think the way I parent. My children were over-stimulated and overscheduled due to overkeen parenting and my 5 year old watched way too much television as a toddler (he was a poor sleeper and very lively so I thought TV would help me and him in some way but it made matters much worse as I believe excessive TV contributed to his hyperactivity and being unable to entertain himself). My eldest has always been extremely demanding however, having read The Idle Parent, this is set to change! I've already started to make changes to the way I do things and now my ironing gets done during the day (not 10 o'clock at night anymore!) whilst my children play in the garden with the patio door firmly closed!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars really hard to rate as I hated a lot of it but agreed with the initial premise!, 21 July 2009
By C. M. Jordan "Ellesar" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I have not encountered such an infuriating book for a long time. I am broadly speaking a continuum concept, idle parent sort of person, but this book had me chucking it a couple of times. I know how I parent and am happy with it, so I was in no way reading it as a guide, which is just as well as this book is not aimed at people like me.

The main issue I have with this book is that its demographic is clearly ONLY the middle class professional who has plenty of money, a garden and lots of choices about how and where they live. I first chucked this book when people living on the 10th floor should get allotment space so the children can be left to potter. I live on the fourth floor - I assume that this also applies to me - but where am I going to find an allotment?! I live a mile from the City of London! And even if I could find one I wouldn't be able to afford the few quid it costs.

I chucked this book a second time when the author starts going on (at some length) about private education. Did you know that you could easily save £10,000 a year if you just cut out things that you really don't need? No? Neither did I. If I wanted to free up that kind of money - double it in fact as I have 2 kids - we would all starve and have no home - £10,000 being 90% of my annual income. In this section he also completely contradicts his idle parent hypotheses by giving as an example of a woman who really wanted to send her child to Summerhill and raised the money by working a market stall! NOT very idle!

A frankly laughable aspect of his analysis of the wisdom of private education was inferring that Eton is the epitome of autonomus education and therefore fulfils all the criteria for the free thinking anarchist or autonomous parent! Methinks Old Etonians enjoy positions where they boss us little people around - THEY may be autonomous (though I suspect that they are slaves to the mighty dosh as much if not more than the rest of us), but they are certainly not striving for a freer and more autonomous society.

He also refers to Jeremy Bentham as 'evil'! Of course he is entitled to his opinion, and Utilitarianism is by no means a perfect philosophy, but it is certainly in no way evil, and nor was Bentham. The Continuum Concept (which he extols) has a good heart, but is good for making people (lets face it women) feel bad about not being able to be with their babies ALL the time. We are not all so privileged as to be able to have nannies and cleaners to make things a little easier!

I have not given this book a lower rating for not liking it - that is not the way I critique - I have marked it down due to the many inconsistencies in his hypothesis and the examples he uses to support it. It is an interesting read, but does not hold together convincingly as a result of this.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, 9 April 2009
Such a good book, i read it during the half term holidays and i totally enjoyed it, for the first time i took it easy and let my kids be independant, they were happy and so was i, i actually got to have a sleep during the day without any upset....i'm happy to have found this book whilst my kids are still young!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars It works.
I read this book recently and our youngest child is 20. Hodgkinson's approach to rearing children and ours are very similar and if our family can be taken as an example, the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. RM KLEPPMANN

5.0 out of 5 stars pure brilliance
This book is fantastic! Not to be taken entirely literally, the content is easy to read and full of common sense. Read more
Published 5 months ago by LauraB

5.0 out of 5 stars Top book - stop spoiling those kids....
I wish I read this book when the kids were babies - lots of common sense really just nice to hear somebody say it as it really is. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. N. Morton

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Can't wait til this comes out 0 November 2008
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.