Parents Under the Influence

Part memoir, part parenting guide, part American and part French, Parents Under the Influence offers a unique view of the challenges of parenting, and fresh perspectives on how to find a beneficial path forward for parents and children alike.

How should we raise our children? It should be a simple enough question to answer but in fact it is an intimidating and complex one. We often address it either by doing exactly what our parents did, or by doing just the opposite: We rely on a cocktail of love and instinct, hoping that that will be enough to overcome the difficulties ahead.

Far from having perfect free will, we are all under the influence. The child still within us confuses, influences or contradicts all the aspirations of our parents, and drives us to reproduce the upbringing we received.

In Parents Under the Influence, Cécile David-Weill draws on her own parenting blunders and successes to guide readers toward awareness of and mastery over their conditioned responses, to heal from the past and become effective, nurturing parents.