Tag: parenting

In Defense of Playdates

In a perfect world, our children would romp out the door after completing their chores and their schoolwork (we homeschool) and knock politely at their best friend’s door, who lived just around the corner in our quiet, speeding-car-free neighborhood, and spend a couple of hours engaged in free creative play, or a massive self-directed building project, or an epic game of Scrabble. How I sometimes wish we lived in that world!

American Parenting and the Terror of Risk

All of parenting is risky because nothing is more important to us than our children. And the decisions we make do matter, sometimes greatly. But if we allow risk to dominate our thinking and practices, we will become unmoored from reality and pass down this paralyzing anxiety to our children.

P.D. James’ Children of Men and Modern Parenting

I didn’t intend to welcome two children into an era marked by so much bleakness and turmoil. With James’s help, I’ve remembered that there is no project more local, no gift more world-changing, than the calling of parenthood.

A Young Girl’s Guide to Power Tools

At age 12, our daughter discovered that our front yard could be more than a place to turn cartwheels. It was also an evergreen...

Living These Relationships, Every Day

"Therefore, it is clear that the care of the household concerns human beings more than material property..." Aristotle, Politics "Here Aristotle infers that the chief aim...

Laying Waste Our Fields

“That day when Turnus raised the flag of war… The high commanders… From every quarter drew repeated levies And laid the wide fields waste of their...

When Children Resemble Their Fathers

“Fleecy sheep are weighed down with wool, and women bear children who resemble their fathers.” Hesiod, Works and Days In describing “a city that prospers,” Hesiod...

Parents Ruling by Love and Age

“For the begetter is the ruler by reason of love and age…” Aristotle, Politics Perhaps we do not normally think of parents as rulers. Aristotle...

Rising at Night

“…and when anything needs doing it ought not to be left undone, whether it be day or night. There are occasions when a householder...

Teenagers, Gratitude, and a Culture of Affluence

Holland, MI. Like many readers, or perhaps more accurately, like many readers with children, I read with great interest Mark Mitchell’s piece on “Cultivating...