Honored by Honoré

Pressure. Pushing down on me;
Pressing down on you, no man ask for.
Under pressure. That tears a building down;
Splits a family in two; puts people on streets.

Lyrics from “Under Pressure” (1981). Written by Queen and David Bowie.

To tear down. Derribar

I was honored to have author Carl Honoré as a guest on yesterday’s Highways and Byways. We discussed his new book, called Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting.

Having been raised in Edmonton, Canada -he currently lives in London- Carl is a huge ice hockey fan. In traditional Canadian fashion, he managed to go ice skating while here in Madrid, taking advantage of the ice rink in nearby Majadahonda: “Wow, we need an ice rink like that in London!” he exclaimed.

Ice rink. Pista de hielo

Carl’s message is that we, as parents, are under so much pressure to do a good job parenting that we end up hijacking our children’s childhoods. We push them. We polish them. We protect them and pamper them. And most of the time it backfires.

To hijack. Secuestrar. Apropiarse de
To backfire. Fracasar; cuando el tiro sale por la culata

Carl told us the story of when he found out that his seven-year old son is a gifted young artist. “I was so surprised by the “g” word (gifted) that I did everything in my power to promote my son’s skills, including hiring a tutor,” he said.

Gifted (child). Niño superdotado

That was when Carl realized he too had fallen into the pressure trap.

“Daddy,” his son said, “I don’t want a tutor. I just want to draw. Why do grown-ups always have to take over everything?” Touché.

Grown-up. Adulto, persona mayor

Click below to watch Carl discuss the ideas behind his new book.



Published by: Drew Crosby