Parenting Without Perfection: Being a Kingdom Influence in a Toxic World

Rating:
Summary: A learned, personal account of parenting
Review: Unlike some authors who seem to promise that if parents follow a certain set of suggestions their children will turn out "perfect," John Seel knows that in this life perfection is unattainable. He also knows that parents have much less control over their children's lives than they might think. Parents can provide good examples for their children to follow; they can make wise choices about where their children go to school; they can strive to minimize the level of hypocrisy they display before their teenagers; they can make an effort to understand youth culture and what Seel calls contemporary America's "deathwork culture"--and Seel advises that they do make such an effort rather than minimize it or ignore it as frivolous, for, however fleeting, youth culture matters to the youths who currently inhabit it: parents can do all these things and yet still see their teenager make poor and even self-destructive choices. This is because teenagers are moral agents, capable, despite their immaturity and inexperience, of making decisions for themselves. Thus, working from within a biblical framework Seel advises that parents do their best insofar as their children's education and moral training are concerned, that they pray regularly for their teenagers, and that they model the kind of lives they would like their teens to live; but he also counsels that parents should recognize and appreciate a teen's capacity to make decisions for him or herself. Seel's wise approach to parenting is grounded in personal experience and in years of study of contemporary American culture. This is a book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: A learned, personal account of parenting
Review: Unlike some authors who seem to promise that if parents follow a certain set of suggestions their children will turn out "perfect," John Seel knows that in this life perfection is unattainable. He also knows that parents have much less control over their children's lives than they might think. Parents can provide good examples for their children to follow; they can make wise choices about where their children go to school; they can strive to minimize the level of hypocrisy they display before their teenagers; they can make an effort to understand youth culture and what Seel calls contemporary America's "deathwork culture"--and Seel advises that they do make such an effort rather than minimize it or ignore it as frivolous, for, however fleeting, youth culture matters to the youths who currently inhabit it: parents can do all these things and yet still see their teenager make poor and even self-destructive choices. This is because teenagers are moral agents, capable, despite their immaturity and inexperience, of making decisions for themselves. Thus, working from within a biblical framework Seel advises that parents do their best insofar as their children's education and moral training are concerned, that they pray regularly for their teenagers, and that they model the kind of lives they would like their teens to live; but he also counsels that parents should recognize and appreciate a teen's capacity to make decisions for him or herself. Seel's wise approach to parenting is grounded in personal experience and in years of study of contemporary American culture. This is a book worth reading.