Parenting

Consider what it takes for a child to develop into a grown-up. We enter our lives in a state of utter dependence on adults. Eventually, God willing, we become adults ourselves, capable of navigating daily life on our own. The journey from the former to the latter, Gill told me, ought to be one of gradually expanding independence. Parents shouldn’t ... See more

The Atlantic • Cities Aren’t Built for Kids

The best gift we can give a boy, to help him become self-actualized enough to feel free to choose to be either traditional or nontraditional, is a mom and dad devoted to the art and discipline of raising children together, even if that means living in separate, but nearby, homes. Once a family of four hits an income threshold where they can afford

John Gray PhD • The Boy Crisis

But while the changes in a dad’s brain do resemble those in a mom’s, the dad brain also drives contributions that are different from mom’s. For mom, it’s baby talk and staring into the baby’s eyes; for dad, it’s playful touching and behavior, physically moving the baby, and introducing the baby to new objects.34

John Gray PhD • The Boy Crisis

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

The Unlived Life: Carl Jung’s Profound Insight into Parental Influence

Carl Jung

So the ideal worker norm — this is a term coined by Joan Acker. The ideal worker norm is the idea that adults today should be fully committed and entirely devoted to their jobs and their employers — available at a moment’s notice, unencumbered by external responsibilities that might diminish from their ability to perform their jobs well.

And competi... See more

Opinion | The Deep Conflict Between Our Work and Parenting Ideals

Caitlyn Collins on The Ezra Klein Show - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-caitlyn-collins.html?showTranscript=1

Mothers have martyred themselves in their children’s names since the beginning of time. We have lived as if she who disappears the most, loves the most. We have been conditioned to prove our love by slowly ceasing to exist... What a terrible burden for children to bear—to know that they are the reason their mother stopped living. What a terrible bu... See more

Glennon Doyle • Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Presumably, parents in the past cared as much about their kids' safety as parents today do. But they took far fewer precautions than parents today, and exerted far fewer controls over kids' behavior. Perhaps they thought it was important that children learn to take risks in order to develop courage. Or perhaps they thought that getting into scrapes... See more

David Brooks • The Organization Kid

All kids need the same things from their parents:

To know they’re acceptable exactly as they are

To know that no matter what, their parents will be there to help them, take care of them, protect them, give them food and shelter, and emotional/physical love

To be delighted in

Farnam Street • Dr. Laura Markham: Peaceful Parenting [The Knowledge Project Ep. #52]

Dads and moms both love their children deeply, but differently.