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Wanting What's Best

Parenting, Privilege, and Building a Just World
4.21 goodreads logo

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( 119 ratings, 24 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Wanting What's Best, Sarah W. Jaffe explores the difficult choices privileged parents face when pursuing the best for their own children, often at the expense of others. Through interviews and research, she reveals how decisions around childcare, schooling, and resource allocation shape not only individual futures but broader social equity. The book invites parents to consider how their actions contribute to systemic inequality and challenges them to act as if the wellbeing of all children mattered equally.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3999
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for parents and caregivers who wish to navigate parenting with an awareness of social equity, as well as readers interested in the intersections of family life, privilege, and systemic inequality.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

When privileged parents say that they want what's best for their child, they don't consciously add and not for other children. Yet the practical effect of parents with privilege relentlessly pursuing their own child's interests is that other children are left behind.

Author Sarah W. Jaffe interviewed dozens of parents who are resisting the cultural pressures to seek the best for only their kids while navigating some of the major decisions that parents makeβ€”about childcare, schools, how they use their time and money, and the legacy they hope to leave their kids. These may not feel like political decisions, but each either contributes to a system where only a few can thrive or takes a small step toward dismantling it.

Our children are watching and learning from how we make choices. How we treat the people who care for them tells them how they should behave as a boss. Where we send them to school teaches them about their place in the world. How we spend our time and money sends them more powerful messages about how to spend theirs than any lecture about the importance of giving back or gratitude ever could.

What does it look like to fight for other people's children as if the future of your own child depended on it? What choices would you make?

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Elliot Haspel, author of Crawling Behind, praises the book for going beyond describing parental challenges to addressing parents' obligations toward a just society. Jaffe's synthesis of research and personal stories uncovers the tensions well-off parents face and offers guidance for those aiming to balance their child's upbringing with social justice. The work is described as an essential roadmap for making informed choices that avoid perpetuating injustice.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781641607674

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 24 May 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: Chicago Review Press

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 12.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 228.0mm

Weight: 335g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Sarah W. Jaffe has written about parenting, foster care, and inequities in the healthcare system for Slate, Catapult. the Rumpus, Lit Hub, and BKLYNER. She is currently a writer for the parenting website Romper. Previously, she worked as an attorney representingfoster children, in both family court and federal court proceedings. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

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