Kent’s Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Frank Furedi, said parents were under “enormous pressure” from schools and society to mould their children and oversee their achievements.
“They find it difficult to let go and this cultivates a sense of dependency.”
Professor Furedi’s comments were in response to Conservative MP Claire Perry’s criticism of parents for filling children’s lives with too many organised activities, in an interview with the Times. Mrs Perry is currently David Cameron’s adviser on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.
Frank Furedi is a renowned social commentator, sociologist and author of Culture of Fear, Where Have All The Intellectuals Gone?, Paranoid Parenting, Therapy Culture, and On Tolerance: In Defence of Moral Independence.