Thoughtful Dad On the perils of being ‘cool’… A friend from childhood offered an observation a while back about the nature of being “cool.”  It went something like this. “Growing up we all realize, at some point, that our parents can’t really make us do anything,” he asserted. “True,” I said. “But tell me if you’ve noticed this,” he asked, leadingly.  “Doesn’t it seem like the cool kids...

The thinking dad Unexamined parenting is not worth inflicting. There is a line, often quoted, that says something to the effect that parents only become good at their job about the time their kids have grown up.  Put another way, by the time they have become experienced, they are unemployed.  Moreover, I don’t think it matters whether we have one child or ten.  With each child we add another variable to the equation,...