New & Notable Non-Fiction
SELFISH BOOMERS TEACH KIDS 'ME' MESSAGE
National Post: Saturday, January 24, 2009

We Generation: Raising Socially Responsible Kids by Michael Ungar (McClelland & Stewart; 240 pp.; $19.99). The Halifax psychologist believes access to the virtual world can help young people develop a sense of community but wants to remind parents of the crucial work involved in raising socially responsible children. Reviewing the book in The Gazette in Montreal, Monique Polak writes: "This book is full of contemporary references, including one to Stephen Harper's parenting style (tongues wagged, says Ungar, when after the 2006 election, Harper shook his son's hand good-bye in front of school--Ungar thinks Harper deserves credit for walking the child to school in the first place). But Ungar's advice is surprisingly old-fashioned. He argues that what children need most is a sense of connection. He also argues that growing children need to be touched, and that our culture has gone overboard in discouraging physical contact between adults and children. Ungar doesn't have much good to say about Baby Boomer parents. By looking out chiefly for ourselves, we model what he calls 'Me thinking,' instead of showing our kids how to 'think We.' His solution: Next time your kids come home, turn off the TV and make sure the chair next to yours is empty. Children, Ungar says, "want roots, wings and an audience to appreciate them." Buy it.