Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain World

Psychologist Levine (Teach Your Children Well) offers a practical, wise manual aimed at helping anxious parents with their often equally anxious kids. According to her, overprotective parenting commonly leads to two problems: “accumulated disability,” or “the impairment of life skills,” in kids, and “learned helplessness,” the “belief that you are powerless to change your circumstances.” With empathy, Levine explores the valid anxiety parents and children feel about facing a “world of disconcerting unpredictability and upheaval” and lays out the “foundational” skills children need to develop: critical thinking, curiosity, creativity, flexibility, educated risk-taking, collaboration, perseverance, self-regulation, and the “ultimate life skills: hope and optimism.” Levine also emphasizes the ability to thrive amid uncertainty, illustrated with stories of people who have evinced this skill, both famous—Steve Jobs, who survived being fired from his own company—and not—a medical technician who fled her native South Vietnam at age 15. While the issues raised are relatively familiar, Levine pulls together a solid set of recommendations for dealing with them. Plenty of parents will benefit from her treatise on how to prepare children for an uncertain future. (Feb.)