The best parenting advice I’ve ever heard came from my youngest, Mark, after he grew up and had children of his own. He and his wife have five.
“You have to pay attention,” he told me.
If you’re paying attention, and a child gets a foot or two off the path you’ve chosen for him or her, you can say, “Move to your right a little.” And they do and that’s that. No big deal.
But if you’re not paying attention, Mark said, before you know it they are way off the path, down there in the creek somewhere or tangled up in a bunch of briers. You have to go get them. There’s a lot shouting. You’re upset, they’re upset.
All that could be avoided if you would just pay attention.
Coming Monday: The Lesson