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St Edmund's Parish Church
Roundhay, Leeds, England
Articles - Book Reviews - Rob & Llod Parsons
Book Review
"What Every Kid Wished Their Parents Knew... And Vice Versa", by Rob & Lloyd Parsons.
Published by Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-73556-2. Price £4.99.
"Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their teachers." Socrates.
The writer of Ecclesiastes might have been right when he pronounced there wasn't anything new under the sun. It seems that each generation simply relives the experiences of the last, except that the length of hair, skirts, and pub opening times varies. However, time moves on remorselessly, and we're only properly qualified to be kids by the time we're losing our hair, and only properly qualified to be parents by the time we've lost our teeth. There are shelves of books on how to turn your new-born in to a teenage angel, but somehow they miss out on the inescapable reality that the parents who will be this child's role-models were no angels when it was their turn. Women may be from Venus and men from Mars, but teenagers are from another galaxy. Much better not to struggle with the impossibility of inter-galactic harmony, and instead attempt to build bridges of communication wherever possible.
Communication is, ideally, a two-way process. That means that children have something worth saying to their parents, as well as vice-versa. That's the key reason why this book has been written by father and son team Rob and Lloyd Parsons. Rob leads "Care for the Family", and is well known for his series of books on relationships. Lloyd is a seventeen year old who has a father who writes books. This book is an exchange of questions and responses between the two. It's about how parents and children see each other; the expectations they have; and the expectations they perceive are held of them. This dialogue is interspersed with quotes and quips, and with recollections from other children and parents on their own experiences.
"What Every Kid..." is a humorous yet provocative book that's easy to dip into. It looks like a good read for parents and older children. There's a copy in the church library if you'd like to have a look...
http:/www.stedmunds.roundhay.org.uk/misc/parsons.htm
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Last Revised 28 January, 2000