Young Americans

American kids and their parents navigating the twenty-first century.

by David Anderegg

The Tiger Daddy

If Amy Chua were Coach Chua, who would complain? Read More

We're number 23!

International comparisons of science and math just in...we're still tanking! Read More

The latest narrative about American economic woes is "the lazy American." Our kids don't do as well as wish...because they're lazy? Maybe economists don't spend enough time with real kids and their parents. Read More

How I learned to hate cyberspace

I thought I had a good idea. Until it hit the Internet. Read More

Free-range kids part 2: Put that mommy in jail!

Anxious about tough parenting decisions? You can sleep like a baby if you just learn to punish other parents for their decisions when they are different than yours. Read More

Free-range and proud?

Why should experts tell parents when to let kids off the leash? Since it's a matter of family values, who are we to butt in? Read More

Innocence corrupted...again

Adolescents...of every generation....believe they have been corrupted by their elders. Can we learn to celebrate our shared fantasies of betrayal? Read More

We are always amused

Do kids always need to be amused? Read More

Rest in peace, Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology taught us kids are not little adults. So why do we treat them that way? Read More

Developmental psychology is dead (again)

Developmental psychology once taught us that children really are different from adults. Do we need to learn this lesson over and over again? Read More

Sweet Caroline indeed

Why, you might ask, does a parenting blogger care about Caroline Kennedy's recent foray into senatorial politics? The word is nepotism, my dears. Read More

The Deadwood Effect

When he went off the medications, his orgasm never returned to normal. Yep. I said, never. Read More

A Modest Proposal for 2009

It's 2009, and it's time to start the New year right...by laughing! Or at least stop trying to shut down other people's laughing. Read More

A loaf of bread, an Amethyst, and thou

So, kids, wanna have a nice cold one? Sorry. We're here to protect you from that.

Summer camp season is almost over, so I guess we need to get to the punch line about what drives the sad phenomenon of "kid-sickness," that awful visceral feeling that life isn't worth living while your kid is away at camp. So, being a therapist and all, I guess I'll ask you a question: why do you hate your kid so much?

They seem weirdly pathological, those parents who desperately sit by the mailbox waiting for a letter from their child at camp, or those who frantically search the camp's website looking for a candid picture of their child. But maybe they're not: maybe they're just the wave of the future.

It's that time of year again: parents have done their shopping, labeling and packing, and driven six hours one-way to drop their kids off at sleep-away camp. And then, with the kids safely dropped off at Camp No-Ko-Me-Ko-No, the parents drive home, kick off their shoes, pour themselves a drink and start enjoying every parent's dream: the kid-free summer! Does this sound familiar? Uh...sorry. Wrong decade. That was the fifties.

No, I am not a Marxist, although, like many of my generation, I fancied myself one when I was in college. But I am still occasionally an economic determinist, which means, to me, that sometimes the solution to apparently complex social problems can be found by following a relatively simple rule: follow the money.

Why do we as a society present our children with such conflicting options, values, and expectations for behavior? Are we trying to drive them crazy? Read More

On the (Red) Carpet

Ever been to a prom walk-in? The event in which seniors get their names announced and then walk in to their proms on a red carpet...behind ropes? While their sad, desperate middle-aged parents play the part of sad, desperate middle-aged paparazzi at the Academy Awards? And did it creep you out? Read More

Little Greedheads

Are kids just naturally greedy? Read More

This Nip Is Not a Bite :)

So kids use informal language...is that bad? Read More

A Rising Tide Sinks All Boats

It's 25 years since "A Nation at Risk." What have our children learned? Read More

The Desperate Season

Time to pick a college...now what? Read More

David Anderegg, Ph.D., is a clinical and developmental psychologist on the faculty of Bennington College and a child therapist in private practice in Lenox, Massachusetts.

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About Young Americans

Young Americans is a blog about American kids and families, especially about the cultural experiences, pressures and fashions which affect them. Families are always subject to new information, new trends, new situations which make the whole thing seem too hard. Young Americans is a blog about helping people understand, and, often, ignore, the new new thing in favor of the old old thing: self-knowledge and calm conviction in the face of countervailing winds.