Parentology: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Science of Raising Children but Were Too Exhausted to Ask by Dalton Conley | eBook

Publishers Weekly

12/02/2013
The science is buried in the midst of anecdotes, and the advice leans toward the “do what I did, because I’m smart” school in what, despite NYU professor Conley’s (You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist) credentials as chair of the Children and Youth Section of the American Sociological Association, is more a privileged New York City parenting memoir than a guide to evidence-based childrearing. Experiences like having his young children featured on Anderson Cooper to discuss their unusual names (E and Yo Xing Heyno Augustus Eisner Alexander Weiser Knuckles), which he claims will raise their non-cognitive IQs, or prepping them for a visit with the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, fall into a dead spot between being relatable to most parents and being delightful enough to serve as celebrity storytelling. Conley’s science is frequently post hoc (he’d rather have his kids in the special ed classes because the student-teacher ratio is better) and often ignored. In the end, the book’s focus is the author himself and why he’s a pretty successful parent, possibly due to all of his research and enthusiasm for giving his kids every possible advantage, and possibly just due to giving them a lot of love. Agent: Sydelle Kramer, Susan Rabiner Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Amy Chua

Parentology is brilliant, jaw-droppingly funny, and full of wisdom—backed up by the latest scientific studies. Dalton Conley is one of the most talented writers of his generation, and this mesmerizing book is bound to change your thinking about parenting and its conventions.

Pamela Druckerman

Honest, smart, and strange….In this half-memoir, half-experiment, Dalton Conley rattles the data, and some surprising things fall out.

Kirkus Reviews

2014-02-19
A parent's-eye view of recent scientific research into "the job you can never quit," with a lot of winking. Today's young parents have been deprived and blessed at the same time. A few decades ago, the road to parenting success was illuminated by a few trusted sources—Dr. Spock, What to Expect When You're Expecting, etc.—and the hard-earned wisdom passed down through generations. In the Internet age, the advice available to parents is an embarrassment of riches. Conley (Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety, 2009, etc.) delivers a parenting guide to help sort out the good science from the bad, the harebrained schemes from the evidence-based parenting strategies. The author has the bona fides in the two areas that matter: He's a father, and he's also a dual-doctorate scientist and chair of the Children and Youth Section of the American Sociological Association. The book as a whole comes across a bit unevenly, however; a chapter dedicated to exploring cultural views of choosing baby names veers into the ridiculous when Conley reveals that they named their first child "E" and their second child "Yo" and then took them on CNN to discuss it. When a travel bottle of shampoo fell into the toilet and got stuck, Conley attempted to bribe his kid with money to fish it out for him; when the child refused, he switched to declaring her spoiled, which did the trick. There are passages offering good advice, such as defusing conflict by offering choices, but it can be hard to tell when Conley's being serious, which diminishes the author's better points. Will appeal to parents whose idea of comedy hews closer to Arrested Development than Leave It to Beaver—but do you want parenting advice from the Bluth family?

Parentology: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Science of Raising Children but Were Too Exhausted to Ask

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