Restoring Childhood
How to Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for 3 months + $20 Audible bonus voucher
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
Restoring Childhood
Narrated by:
Peter Gray
Buy Now for $23.53
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Gray
-
By:
-
Peter Gray
Summary
We have spent the last few decades laser-focused on improving safety for children. We have supervised them more, and made their lives more achievement-oriented, with the good intentions of helping them find success in the increasingly competitive adult world. But what if all that protection is part of the reason kids are now struggling?
In Restoring Childhood, author, researcher, and psychology professor Peter Gray argues that children need something that seems to be missing from modern childhood: the freedom to play, explore, solve problems, and take age-appropriate risks without adults constantly directing them. When we assume children are fragile, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Overprotection leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression in children; but, as Restoring Childhood shows, independence builds children’s confidence, resilience, and emotional strength.
Restoring Childhood is a radical examination of how certain societal trends—from round-the-clock news coverage, to increasing reliance on cars, to the introduction of Common Core, to growing wealth inequality—conspired to create a fundamentally anti-child environment. And if we continue to tighten the leash on our kids, no amount of screen-time restriction will reverse the alarming mental health crisis we see our kids enduring today.
We must restore childhood to children. We must, individually and collectively, prioritize adult-free play, and the time and space for it—in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and as parents.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of key charts, tables, and graphs from the book.
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.