Daniel Bailly is a child psychologist, working in Marseille, and the author of numerous works on education, including La Peur de la séparation (2005) and Alcool, drogues chez les jeunes: agissons (2009), published by Editions Odile Jacob.

Parents always ask the same questions: how to be good parents? How to give our child a good upbringing and provide him with everything he needs for his protection, so as to enable him to grow up mentally and physically well balanced? When problems do arise, today’s concerned parents turn to science and medicine.
But ‘good’ and ‘bad’ behaviour have now been replaced by the terms ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’. In health and education, the norm is omnipresent — with the result that parents are blamed and made to feel guilty.
What are the limits of such an approach to educational questions, and what are the consequences? It is time make parents feel more self-confident and to be more critical of the advice, tactics and principles that are showered on them.
The author urges parents to recover their autonomy in educational matters, to focus on their children’s real needs, to listen to them and to re-examine the values that they wish to transmit. These are refreshing thoughts on a time-honoured subject.

• A reflection on the art of parenting.
• Thought-provoking ideas on education and the values that we wish to transmit to our children.