Parenting Out of Control

They go by many names: helicopter parents, hovercrafts, PFHs (Parents from Hell). Drawing on a wealth of eye-opening interviews with parents across the country, Margaret K. Nelson cuts through the stereotypes and hyperbole to examine the realities of what she terms "parenting out of control." Situating this phenomenon within a broad sociological context, she finds several striking explanations for why today's prosperous and well-educated parents are unable to set realistic boundaries when it comes to raising their children. Analyzing the goals and aspirations parents have for their children as well as the strategies and technologies they use to reach them, Nelson discovers fundamental differences among American parenting styles that expose class fault lines, both within the elite and between the elite and the middle and working classes. Today's parents are faced with unprecedented opportunities and dangers for their children, and are evolving novel strategies to adapt to these changes--this lucid and insightful work provides an authoritative examination of what happens when these new strategies go too far.

Margaret K. Nelson is the Hepburn Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College and is the author of many books, including The Social Economy of Single Mothers: Raising Children in Rural America, and, with Anita I. Garey, Who's Watching? Daily Practices of Surveillance among Contemporary Families.