Jane Sandeman
posted 3 October 2007

When Sue Palmer’s book Toxic Childhood came out in 2006 it was enthusiastically received. A letter was sent to a national newspaper signed by 110 professionals and academics in the wake of the book, picking up its theme: the contention of Toxic Childhood was that there is an escalation of mental health problems with children. The letter and book contend that this is because children’s brains cannot adjust well to the effects of rapid technological and cultural change. They are subject to junk food and junk play and therefore are not able to focus attention, defer gratification, practise self-control and exercise empathy.

On the back of the popularity of the book Sue Palmer has released a shorter , self-help style book to help parents detox their children. The positive side of the book is that it is extremely well written and is un-put-downable. For a book that is critiquing childrens’ ability to focus, it cleverly ensures that the book has very short, snappy chapters broken up by quotes and cartoons, and handy checklists of what to do to (or should that be for or with) your children.

Unfortunately, as is the way with self help books, the book prescribes what parents should do and ends up being hectoring and guilt inducing. There is a contradiction in the premise of the book: according to Sue Palmer there is this huge increase in mental health problems in the young and also huge social breakdown and a social divide, apparently stemming from the junk lifestyle of young children. The solution to this weight of health and social problems, then, is to turn off the television. This mismatch between the alleged depth of the problem and the seeming superficiality of the solution reveals the agenda of the book.

The agenda is that of a mother who has thought about and bought up her children in a certain way and believes that this should be the norm. Palmer strongly believes that one of the parents of a child should work part time, and that a child should be educated in the private sector. This is the preoccupation of the middle-classes at the moment: the horror of full time private day care and the perennial topic of education. This tells us about middle-class anxieties but not how to raise ‘happy’ children.

And this is the dilemma of the book. Presumably these junked up children who are creating social disruption are children of the kind of people who will not read a book about Detoxing Childhood. In one section of the book Ms Palmer gives useful advice on ‘what shall we talk about?’. She literally gives hints on what parents can say to their children in the morning, at mealtimes, at bedtime, in the shop, in the kitchen, outdoors and in the car. What family has got itself into a situation where parents cannot talk to their children without having to read a book to find out what to say?

I know that Sue Palmer’s intention was not to lay down the law. She does say that ‘Parents have to make their own decisions’. However she is also very clear that they have to make those decisions within the framework she deems to be appropriate. Inevitably that means a book that reflects her prejudices rather than anything else.

Jane Sandeman is the convenor of the Institute of Ideas' Parents Forum. Sue Palmer will be speaking on 'Toxic Childhood' at the Battle of Ideas festival in London on 27-28 October 2007.