This is what childhood is for: the freedom to explore the world, discover and pursue passions, and generally “waste time” playing and daydreaming. Why would we want to limit that to the weekend?

The reason kids should have free rein with regard to food is that they are building an understanding of how to eat in the same way that they are building an understanding of everything else in life: by exploration, discovery, and trial and error.

Instead of focusing on rules, Taking Children Seriously focuses on fostering understanding. Parenting is the process of supporting a child until they understand the world well enough that they can support themselves. What is the best way to foster understanding? To provide freedom and security for a person’s creativity to discover how the world

To have any hope in finding a win–win, I needed to lighten up. So, the next time I went to change his diaper, I just tried playing with him. I found myself hunched over him, singing a goofy song and rocking back and forth while he giggled. Somehow, I managed to get him changed, all while rocking and laughing. It was messy at first, but the more I

When a toddler receives a gift, it’s common to see their eyes light up with a genuine feeling of gratitude, see it radiate from their whole body, and then witness it get stamped out when a parent says, “Well, what do you say?” This interjection, which is intended to teach gratitude, in fact turns genuine gratitude into shame, often public shame

I’m not saying parents should leave toddlers to climb on tables. I’m saying there shouldn’t be a rule that there’s no climbing on tables. Instead, figure out how to make the table safe. Find something else for the kid to climb on. If you really don’t want them on the table, keep the chairs away. I’ll have a lot more to say about alternatives to

When I feel like going to sleep, I tell my kids that I’m tired and that I don’t feel like playing with them anymore. Then, just like adults, my kids find ways to entertain themselves with technology like iPads until they’re ready for bed according to their own preferences. When I make staying up less interesting, my kids are less interested in

We discovered early on with our first child that spending hours trying to get her to sleep at opportune times rarely worked out. It was much more efficient to simply go about our day and figure out how to accommodate her if and when she fell asleep. This relieved us of the burden of trying to manage her, eliminated any conflict about getting her to

for a person’s creativity to discover how the world works. Rules limit freedom, and hence understanding, and therefore impair the parenting project.