Restoring Childhood and Setting Our Kids Free with Peter Gray

We are all about expanding perspectives here at The Perfect Child Podcast which is why I was particularly delighted to sit down with Peter Gray to discuss his new book, Restoring Childhood: How to Set Kids Free In the Age of Anxiety.

After much extensive research, which he lays out in the book, Dr. Gray posits that it is not tech or social media that is causing our kids anxiety. In fact, according to his research, rates of anxiety and depression among teens were already significantly rising before the Internet so to just blame the phenomenon on social media is not looking at a complete picture.

A lot of what Dr. Gray studies is the effect that declining independence in childhood, including less free play, exploration and unsupervised peer interaction has on the developing human. In our conversation, Dr. Gray shares a comparison through the decades of how we meet our children and how this general growing sense of mistrust and fear in the adults' psyche has contributed to the "anxious generation" and how we can reverse these symptoms.

The future is BRIGHT! Get the book! Read up on all the research to get informed and then try to work towards becoming a more Trustful, Autonomy-Supportive Parent (TAS). It's easier when you can see the comparisons and stories that are shared in the book. Dr. Gray also offers helpful tips at the end. Enjoy!

References and resources:

Dr. Peter Gray - https://www.petergray.org

Get his books - https://www.petergray.org/blank-2

Play Makes Us Human Substack - https://petergray.substack.com/

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Your child isn’t broken – the systems are. Choose your child. 

If you need support deprogramming from the conditions and systems in which you were raised so that you can CHOOSE your child, book a FREE discovery call with me, Belinda Tung at the Perfect Child website here.

Music: "This is the Day" by Jaya Lakshmi