Musk - Trump. Nah, Parenting. And the Moon.

I have not weighed in on any Trump-Musk stuff before, and I'm certainly not going to pretend I have anything to offer talking about them now.  This is my signal to get out of Do(d)ge until there is information I can process. And now Steve Bannon is in the mix.

From my 2012 files I have some longer posts about parenting, which I used to know something about, and they also have good comments, including a few of you.  I was going to hold them off for a while because I've just done a bunch of 2012 links, but frankly 13 years ago is looking pretty good at the moment. And I'll see if I can find some music and comedy for y'all.

Don't Criticise Your Parents Until Your Own Children Are Grown. 

 I always said the key to parenting was to have wonderful children who make you look good.  Then remind them that their function is to be wonderful children and make you look good.

Parenting Experts

 So that's lesson one: beware experts.  They have their place and deserve to be listened to.  But you may know better - especially if you are humble enough to know you don't know enough.Lesson two is related: surround yourself with friends who care deeply about parenting, and compare notes.

Charles Murray and Parenting

 I think the idea that we were taught to color in the lines because that is the sure way to success is a back-reading by the 60's generation onto 50's values.  The boomers confused the rules they were taught as children, because they were children, with the full panoply of adult understanding of values by their parents. The people who came through the Great Depression, WWII & Korea, polio and atomic weapons are unlikely to be people who believed much in guarantees in life.  More likely, they had hopes that if everything went well..."Well that's quite different then, isn't it," as Emily Litella used to say.

Family Culture 

Competition was only part of the value that said This doesn’t have to be painful.  There might be a way to make it fun. Family devotions might involve food, or noise, or a game. Lots of the Bible can be pretty funny, if you read it right. Let’s go to someone’s house and get them involved. Vaudeville is not yet dead.  Well, okay, it is, but you can still find slapstick.

Family Traditions.

 Much of the family tradition was highly intentional, but other parts came in serendipitously - an ancient noisy ice-cream maker purchased for $2 at a yard sale became central to the Defiance of Midwinter barbecues, while a concerted attempt to start Devotion By The Ocean lasted only one year attempt (very hot chocolate spilled, no available restrooms...it was the story about it that became the tradition).  Yet I don't think one knows to keep the accidental elements unless one is always looking to add to the collection.  Chance favors the prepared mind and all that.

And a moon mnemonic to tell whether it is waxing or waning. Very simple.