Busy parents are hurting children
A PARENTING expert has warned that pushy middle-class British parents are “destroying” the mental health of their teenagers with their frenzied careeroriented lifestyles.
Psychologist Steve Biddulph claims the material ambitions of affluent parents are leading to anxiety, self-harm and eating disorders in their children.
In his new book, he says a third of teenage girls in the UK now suffer from mental illnesses.
“It’s not the kids, but the insane world we adults have created with our overbusy lives, consumerism and lack of boundaries around childhood,” he said.
“Success, as defined by a glittering career, an affluent, busy lifestyle and out-competing the other kids in your school, is a living nightmare.
“It is destroying the mental health of almost every boy and girl caught up in it.’
The 63-year-old father-of-two, who was born in Britain but lives in Australia, said: “Kids are sensitised to please Mum and Dad, so here they they feel they are part of your badges of success.
“Parents see their kids as a measure of them. We don’t know if the parents transmit the stress of this to the child or if the child perceives it. So the kids feel they have to be good-looking, well dressed, have fantastic holidays and be rich.”
Biddulph, whose latest book is
said: “The sensitive, the open-hearted, the caring, the empathetic ones are the first to go. They are the ones you find in the middle of the night on the cold bathroom tiles, sobbing uncontrollably, while you ring for an ambulance.”
A National Health Service survey last year revealed a worrying increase in girls as young as 12 self-harming, with one in four 16 to 24-year-olds having selfharmed. The study also found a rise in girls feeling “worthless and unhappy”, with a third having depression.
The psychologist, best known for his 2010 best-seller said he cannot “think of a childhood worse than what most Britons aspire to” for their offspring. He said British parents need to cut their work hours immediately and, if possible, take their children on a “gap year” to travel.
“I think the British way of life is wrong,” he added. “There is something about people in Britain not standing up for themselves; enjoying good incomes but terrible lives.” – Daily Mail