Keeping Your Child Safe by Paul Gilligan

Independent.ie

Tuesday March 25 2008

Wearing kid gloves

In this age of multiple dangers, how do parents strike a balance between wrapping children in swaddling clothes and giving them leeway? Aine Nugent reads a new guidebook on the subject

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A new book written by clinical psychologist Paul Gilligan hopes to give worried parents a helping hand. As former head of the ISPCC, he is well qualified to do so. Keeping Your Child Safe looks at the ways in which children can be put in danger, unwittingly, unintentionally, but detrimentally. It also looks at safe-guarding them; and how parents can monitor who cares for them, and how, while maintaining trust with them.

Covering areas such as building up self-esteem, dealing with childminders and how our own childhood experiences can affect how we parent, Gilligan pinpoints the key worries parents have. He strives towards helping us find a healthy middle-ground between neurotically smothering our children and a carefree approach without the boundaries children need and demand. The book cleverly discerns the worries parents have at different ages – from the toddler in a crèche to the eight-year-old being bullied in school or the teenager finding her first freedom.

http://www.independent.ie/other/wearing-kid-gloves-1326529.html