As long as they are happy - Marilse Eerkens

What do we want to achieve with raising our children?

Children in the Netherlands are among the happiest in the world. But are they also the nicest children? Can they think critically and do they feel involved in society?

Raising children isn't easy. Parents raise their children in a competitive and individualistic society and, moreover, carry with them the baggage of their own upbringing. Therefore, it's important to consider the purpose of parenting, both for the benefit of the child and for that of society as a whole. Parenting is so much more than preventing behavioral problems—it's also about shaping a person.

As long as they're happy, every senior, caregiver, and policymaker contributes to this challenge. Using five parenting goals, psychologist Marilse Eerkens shows how children can be prepared for the future and for peaceful and democratic ways of learning to live together in our increasingly complex society.

Marilise Eerkens (1967)
Journalist and social psychologist. She was an editor at the magazine J/M Ouders for over five years and wrote about parenting for de Correspondent. She previously published "What do we do with the baby?" about attachment, the brain, and childcare.

Dutch | 9789403166919 | Paperback | 253 pages