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My Father’s Living Will

It is a haze of fog and low cloud at dawn and the kookaburras are wild with ecstasy. The soft low click of the neighbors’ gate breaks in among the birdsong: opening, closing, opening. They are leaving early for the long weekend of midsummer. In the room next to mine, a man is retching, heaving, . . . . Continue Reading »

I’ll Have Consequences

Not too many years ago, I knew a little boy who was prone to temper tantrums that included yelling, kicking, and hitting. He wasn’t entirely to blame for this, having had a rough start in life. Nevertheless, that sort of behavior couldn’t just be excused, and, of course, if uncorrected it would . . . . Continue Reading »

The Parenting Problems of Age Segregation

It has been more than a half-century since James Coleman and his team surveyed students in ten high schools to determine their values and interests and attitudes toward learning. The conclusion was that a new social formation was upon us: the adolescent society. That was the title of the book . . . . Continue Reading »

Kids Today

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids edited by meghan daum picador, 288 pages, $26 The Dadly Virtues: Adventures from the Worst Job You’ll Ever Love edited by jonathan v. last templeton, 192 pages, $24.95 These days it is widely assumed that a . . . . Continue Reading »

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