Solid parenting material
Children of the ’80s learned how to parent by watching television: Family Ties, The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990s version), Modern Family, Gilmore Girls, Black-ish, and The Middle.
Okay, sure, there’s also been some book reading, parenting groups, and lecture attending. But there’s something reassuring about watching a fictional family make the same screw-ups as us. The occasional raised voice, slammed door, and ridiculous demand that will never be followed through on:
“Straight As this semester or you’re getting homeschooled!”
Advice like grains of salt
When the boys were preschoolers Steph used to write and run a parenting blog. But it felt inauthentic. Who were we to dictate the “right” way to raise a kid? We were first-time parents and had no way of knowing if our way even was the right way.
A number of times total strangers on the street, in a shop, would give us parenting advice. They thought their advice was dogma. For all we knew, these people had four kids in prison. Whether the advice comes from us or someone else, take it with a grain of salt, and only follow what resonates with you.
