“Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.” (Samuel Butler)

Everybody is a great parent until they have kids.  We all have great ideals about how we will relate with our kids; how we will give them both freedom and responsibility.  How we will let them make mistakes so that they can learn from them. We fantasize about a home filled with calm voices, mutual respect and cooperation. And all of that flies out of the window the minute you hear yourself utter phrases like, “Take the banana out of your sister’s ear or else!!!!” The truth is, that once we actually have kids, we parents think far too much about how our kids should behave for us and far too little about how we should behave towards them. We fall into the trap of feeling responsible “for” them and their actions (even those involving bananas): and then we forget our responsibilities to them.