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Confessions of the worlds worst parent

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Confessions of the worlds worst parent
“Confessions of the World’s Worst Parent” The essay written by Jerri Cook titled Confessions of the World’s Worst Parent, is based on the book Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry written by author Lenore Skenazy (Cook). Cook provides similarities about raising her son and uses Skenazy’s experiences as they both point out the feeling of being judged by “good” parents because they gave their children the freedom to explore life without constant supervision. Cook shows the struggles between raising children the way she was raised and the way society wants them to be raised today. Cook explains to the audience in a humorous fashion the questions that all parents deal with, children and their freedom to explore and the paranoia that they will be hurt or taken. Presently the planet is dealing with the age of too much information, along with this comes misinformation and overinflated imaginations. Cook mentions that life for children was different when she was a child; children were left to their own devices and the parents trusted them to do the right thing and it did not do any harm (Cook). Cook explains throughout her that society may be producing a planet filled with paranoid parents and children

that cannot fend for themselves. Should parents give their children more responsibility and trust to explore and acquire life skills on their own? The method that Cook uses to make her point to the audience throughout her essay is an anecdotal technique. She uses examples from her own life raising her son and quotes from Skenazy’s book to find a personal common ground with parents raising children. Cook points out the criticisms that Skenazy faced when opening her personal life to the media and sharing her child rearing skills. The use of Cook’s anecdotal technique allows the readers to find a common ground with the author that is familiar and comforting. The humorous way that Cook invites the reader into



Cited: Cook, Jerri. "Confessions of the World 's Worst Parent” Countryside & Small Stock Journal 1 Nov. 2009: Print.

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