How should we raise our children? It should be a simple enough question to answer but in fact it is complex. The child still within us influences all our aspirations as parents and prevents us from sticking to the philosophy we initially hoped to follow. These unresolved emotions drive us to reproduce the upbringing we received, including the behaviours that have hurt us the most. In Parents Under the Influence, Cecile David-Weill draws on her own parenting blunders and successes as well as concrete examples, case studies, and works of fiction to guide readers, helping them heal from the past and become effective, nurturing parents.