Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Read Elsewhere: The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, by Wendy Mogel

"In my work with parents I encounter two general schools of parenting media philosophy:  the What the Hell, Everybody Else Is Doing It School and the School of Total Abstinence.  Both are a form of cheating. The first cheats your children out of protection against grim, overly sexual or violent images that bathe them with experiences they can't put into perspective.  The second school cheats them out of fun and fellowship because so much of grade school social currency is based on knowing what is going on in the media."

"Being present in the moment is perhaps more difficult for us today than at any other time in history.  Ironically, we use a myriad of so-called "timesaving" technological gadgets such as laptops and cell phones, but they do nothing to help us sanctify time because they, themselves, demand so much of our attention.  Moreover . . . we have a tendency to ruminate about our collective past and fret about the future, which adds to our difficulty in living in the moment.  We therefore have to make a conscious effort to focus on the present."

"The hidden secret in the community of abundance in which I live is anguish.  Unsure how to find grace and security in the complex world we've inherited, we try to fill up the spaces in our children's lives with stuff:  birthday entertainments, lessons, rooms full of toys and equipment, tutors and therapists.  But material pleasures can't buy peace of mind, and all the excess leads to more anxiety - parents fear that their children will not be able to sustain this rarefied lifestyle and will fall off the mountain the parents have built for them."

"I meet many parents who are trying so hard to be perfect parents, to make everything just right for their children, that they're draining away their pleasure in parenting.  They're too exhausted and too unconsciously resentful to enjoy the amazing show of childhood.  For these parents, every minute needs to count."

Go.  Read.  This.  Book!

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