In the end, all that any of us can really hope for is that we abide by a principle I once heard prescribed by a management guru but is perfectly apt for any parent: "Let's make better mistakes tomorrow".
Youngsters are particularly apt to ape their parents and society at large, said Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard and the author of "Stumbling on Happiness" (Knopf, 2006).
Without a "reflective awareness" and the benefit of information, says Sanders, parents are apt to struggle with strategies that don't work – or that work for some children, but not others.
The title of Nomi Eve's ambitious first novel refers to the orchard cultivated by her narrator's family in Israel and to the intertwining family trees of her narrator's parents, an apt enough metaphor for a sprawling family saga that spans five generations, nearly two centuries and much of Israel and Palestine's tumultuous recent history.
Say you live in a highrise apt complex, dangerous neighborhood, parents work odd hrs.
This decision would be more apt to please the parent and grandparent vote.
Isabella recently told me she thinks my work is "help kids get to eat, go to school, and play" -- a pretty apt job description of parenting and politics, and a new momily to live by this Mothers Day.
Another possible explanation (that contradicts her theory) is that parents are less apt to see ticks on themselves in time and quicker to see them on their children because of the frequency of bathing, dressing and sun-screening.
"We recognize the political dangers of pointing out that recent studies indicate that a higher proportion of children with lesbigay parents are themselves apt to engage in homosexual activity," Dr. Stacey and Dr. Biblarz wrote in their paper.
If parents were more apt to believe their children had an opportunity for a decent future, one that values their participation and not just who sits at the top, you may see parents dialing back their competitive nature at your kids' games.
What's more, when the actions of the adults were ambiguous, these children of authoritarian parents were more apt to trust the unfamiliar adult, simply because he or she was an adult.
