How lucky I was to have such supportive and thoughtful parents at a time when a book like this was available.
Rather, I found a group of curious, engaged and thoughtful parents who were ready to hear what I had to tell them, however difficult it was to reconcile.
Rather than teaching children to remain quiet in the company of adults, thoughtful parents today want their kids to have a voice -- and to teach them how to use it appropriately.
I commend the environmentally thoughtful parents who begin toilet training their babies at 6 months in an effort to stem the dumping of diapers into landfills and to increase baby-parent bonding.
If intellectual vitality is to be replaced by politically correct sensibilities, academic mentoring by pandering to those taught, and hard work by happy days for all, tuition rates should rightly begin to raise serious questions about value among more thoughtful parents.
(And it's been wonderful to hear thoughtful parents explain the female anatomy to kids who genuinely seem interested in learning what the word "labia" means).
Far more often, I meet thoughtful parents, struggling to find the right balance, in their own lives and in the lives of their children.
The other reason otherwise thoughtful parents might fall into the puppy mill web is because this sales channel is being featured on the happy-talk portion of a national morning TV show.
We don't all have to aspire to be like Mary, Joseph and God, but don't we do owe it to all of our children to be responsible and thoughtful parents, taking all we know from research and best practice to upgrade how we operate?
Hans teaches Liesel to read and to write and for a moment I thought, "Oh, no, don't tell me they've cast Geoffrey Rush because of his role in The King's Speech and have him, again, as a teacher!" But quickly he emerges as a thoughtful, caring adoptive parent who plays an accordion.
As a result -- instead of trying to co-parent in a thoughtful way, my ex-husband spends his days trying to convince me that I'm a horrible mother because I've injured and supposedly mentally damaged my daughter.
