Product Description

America's leading child psychiatrist reveals how parents can give young children the very best start while maintaining their working lives.

Internationally recognized for his brilliant insights into the emotional and intellectual development of infants and young children, Dr. Stanley Greenspan now shows how this can best be encouraged within the real lives of parents today. Recognizing that day care, for the most part, does not provide the intense one-to-one nurturing that children need in the first few years, he offers a radical redefinition of family life. Without suggesting that either parent give up a career, he presents a wide variety of practical solutions, including the "four-thirds solution" (in which both parents work 2/3 time), that make children the top priority and the equal responsibility of both parents.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #714709 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com Review
Enabling parents to provide "daily doses" of quality time with their kids often proves as tough as getting kids to eat their daily requirements of fruits and vegetables. But try we must, insists infant and child development expert Stanley Greenspan, MD, author of The Four-Thirds Solution. Drawing from enlightening research (including his own extensive studies) on the emotional and intellectual development of the very young, Greenspan shows the significance of consistent, loving interaction between child and caregiver-- levels rarely achieved in the majority of American daycare facilities. With passion and urgency, Greenspan shows that America's increased dependence on out- of-home childcare (what he calls "our social experiment") poses serious threats to our youth's long-term development, and ultimately, to our society. Simply put, his "four-thirds solution" serves as a metaphor for rearranging work schedules, allowing parents more time at home. Six real-life scenarios show how different families (including a divorced couple) interpreted the solution, struggled with the changes, and eventually reaped the rewards. Along the way, the Ittleson Prize-winning doctor nimbly debates skeptics and challenges corporations and government to rebalance their priorities. Guilt-inducing? Perhaps, but if Four-Thirds compels parents to spend even one- third more time with their child, it's guilt well invested. --Liane Thomas

From Library Journal
Respected child psychiatrist Greenspan (George Washington Univ. Medical Sch.) here continues a discussion that he and T. Berry Brazelton started in The Irreducible Needs of Children (LJ 11/1/00). Stressing preschoolers' need for concentrated, one-on-one attention, he calls for parents to rethink their priorities and to find ways of making quality time while carving out careers. Using examples from six different families, Greenspan suggests many approaches to striking this seemingly impossible balance, such as part-time work for both parents, work on different shifts, and home businesses. While criticizing the quality of much day care, he also recognizes that at least part-time child care is necessary in most households and covers useful standards for evaluating out-of-home arrangements. To many parents, Greenspan's proposals will seem pie-in-the-sky and impractical; his vision of society requires a massive overhaul of American business. Still, this book is valuable because it will enrich the child care debate and lead to the kinds of legislation that will make the author's paradigm a reality. Recommended. Kay Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, MD
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Illuminates an important goal: helping children and their parents spend more time together." -- Working Mother

"Presents a solution that gives children what they want most....Greenspan's plan might be the answer for today's families." -- American Way

Customer Reviews

What Is Best for the Children?
Most parents probably think long and hard about when and how to raise their children. Part of that process is to look at the latest research on the conditions under which children thrive. Having been a parent for almost 30 years, I am struck by how much the research results have shifted during that time. It reminds me of the latest research on which diets work best, and how to avoid disease. The latest research always seems to contradict what has been "learned" before.

While I usually feel pretty skeptical about research concerning child rearing, my instinct tells me that Dr. Greenspan is probably onto something important in this book. He identifies six types of needs that children have to develop fully in an emotional and intellectual sense, that are imparted mostly during "rug time" with the same adult. Skip those attention-focusing experiences, peek-a-boo games and long discussions of cause-and-effect and some learning will be missed. As I read this book, I was reminded of what Dr. Jane Goodall had to say about what she learned about parenting champanzees in the wild, and how she applied those lessons to being very close to her own son during his first five years.

Back in the Middle Ages (or before 1965), Mom usually stayed home while the children were little, and enjoyed playing with her children. Since then, the new ideal is for parents to both have great educations, demanding careers, and a nice family. The research in 1965 said that with "quality time" and love that all of this was possible. Now, Dr. Greenspan argues that until age five children need to have a lot of dedicated time from the same caregiver, ideally a parent, and not too much time in loosely supervised day care. The research in this book suggests that almost all day care is not "quality time" and such day care must be held to a minimum.

The basic concept of how to deal with this is to first have the parents rethink their lives so that the children get the attention they need while under five, and use the best quality day care you can access the rest of the time. While the book's title suggests that each parent works two-thirds time and parents one-third time, in practice most families will adopt some other solution that creates at least two-thirds of one parent's time to be with the youngest children in the family. The book contains six examples of how this is accomplished (including one divorced couple splitting days and visiting briefly each day, one stay-at-home Dad, one "tag-team" couple who works adjacent shifts and covers for the family when off duty, one "working out of the home" Dad, a traditional family where Mom does the heavy parenting and Dad helps out when not working, and one couple who does the two-thirds, two-thirds part-time jobs solution suggested by the book's title).

The book also provides ideas for how to select day care, how improve day care, and ways that government and employers can help.

The book, as well intentioned as it is, has several weaknesses. First, it is very repetitive. You will keep wondering why the same points are covered again . . . and again. The author seems to think that readers have short memories. Second, although the conclusions feel right to me, I have to wonder what has not been tested that could undermine this research in the future. That point was not well addressed. Third, there's not enough advice on how to work out more flexible arrangements with employers, customers, and spouses. Fourth, although the book is very clear that putting these responsibilities on both parents is good for children and hard on marriages, there isn't much help with how to avoid undermining your marriage in the process. Creating a divorce or a separation will normally not be very good for the children, either. Fifth, the book acts as though the job of parenting is mostly over at five. I don't think so. Remember those teenage years? How should those be handled? Sixth, if this book is right, a lot of families would do well to wait quite a while before having children. That point is not addressed. What is hard to juggle at 24 can be easier and pleasant to deal with at 34. Seventh, although there's a lot of sympathy for single parents and those families on welfare who are affected by welfare reform, the suggested solutions here are hardly going to make any major changes for young children in these families in the near term. My guess is that it is these children who are most at risk for the issues described in this book.

Explore all of the pleasures of parenthood, and enjoy the responsibilities as well!