Psychologist Polly Young-Eisendrath, author of The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance argues that we, as a culture, are undergoing a cultural change which she identified as a self-esteem trap: a time when parents continue to interfere with their children’s developmental growth by constantly protecting them, telling them they are unique or special, thereby setting them up for a lifetime of grief and disappointments.
To counteract what she believes is a growing phenomenon, Young-Eisendrath suggests raising children with the perspective that they are merely ordinary, simply living in an ordinary world with ordinary people. Young-Eisendrath claimed by doing this, children can relate better to others, as well as develop a real sense of self which allows them to become mature, responsible and happy adults.
Young-Eisendrath, who is also a Jungian analyst, bases the book’s premise around the baby-boomer parents. She claims children who have been cuddled by parents are not only spoiled, but are insensitive to others, suffer from low self-esteem or tend to lean towards the other side of the pendulum: being overly confident. Therefore, Young-Eisendrath concludes, children of this sort are likely to show signs of anxiety, impatience, and lack in moral character, as well as to falter in the face of adversity. owever, Young-Eisendrath claims there is still hope for children today, if parents would just allow their children to become self-sufficient.
Irene Warren is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
