Safe and Sound: Protecting Your Child in an Unpredictable World

by Vanessa L. Ochs

Overview

Drawing on research in child development and extensive interviews with families, journalist Vanessa Ochs helps parents make sensible, age-appropriate decisions about when to protect and when to let go and provides strategies for taming their irrational fears and transforming them into manageable ones. Here's sound guidance for parents who want to keep their kids safe and sound, while still nurturing their self-reliance and sense of security.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101500248
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/1995
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	238 KB

About the Author

Vanessa L. Ochs is the author of Inventing Jewish Ritual (JPS), winner of a 2007 National Jewish Book Award. Her other books include Sarah Laughed, The Jewish Dream Book (with Elizabeth Ochs), The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices (edited with Irwin Kula), Words on Fire: One Woman's Journey into the Sacred, and Safe and Sound: Protecting Your Child In An Unpredictable World. For her writing, she was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Dr. Ochs is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies Program at the University of Virginia where she teaches courses in Judaism, anthropology of religion, Jewish feminism, and spiritual writing. Ochs earned her B.A. in Drama and French from Tufts University, an M.F.A. in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College, and Ph.D. in Anthropology of Religion from Drew University.

Editorial Reviews

Ochs, a journalist who specializes in child development and family-related topics, writes a direct and sympathetic guide for parents who are ``no longer sure how to draw the thin line between sane caution and overprotection.'' After her own injury in a car accident precipitated a bout of extreme overprotection of her children, Ochs determined to examine the rational and irrational reasons behind parental overprotection. The bulk of the book is devoted to chapters arranged by stages of a child's life, starting with pre-birth. In each, Ochs outlines the typical protective decisions facing parents and provides sensible tips on knowing when to let go. She suggests a strategy, modeled on traffic lights, for assessing typical anxiety-provoking situations-``an easy green'' is leaving a child with a grandparent, while a ``red light'' is a teenager's request to go to a party where drinking is likely. The final chapter takes an insightful and poignant look at family protection talismans and rituals-from wearing St. Christopher medals to once-a-week phone conversations-and how they give a sense of security to parents and offspring of all ages. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Drawing on her experience as both an overprotected child and a parent suddenly overprotective after a car accident as well as on interviews with other children and parents, Ochs explores how parents rationalize overprotectiveness, just what overprotectiveness is, and the negative effects it has on children's development. She cites case studies with subjects ranging from infants to teens that illustrate how to both assess dangers and encourage developmental steps appropriate to each age. Because overprotected children suffer low self-esteem, difficulty in making friends, inability to identify and meet their own needs, anxiety about going to school, and related problems, Ochs' advice to parents on evaluating risks and overcoming fears to make rational decisions about activities or situations involving their children is particularly welcome. Ochs' warm and accessible book addresses a problem that is often ignored or regarded as a sign of good parenting.

Kathryn Carpenter