What is in the Parents Sphere of Influence?
It was not unusual for parents of earlier generations to think that their job primarily involved the physical care and practical education of their children. In this view, the parent succeeds at the task of parenting by virtue of getting kids washed, dressed, fed and out the door for school, then fed, washed, undressed and into bed at night. Deluxe versions of this model add frills like providing a clean and orderly house, help with homework, particularly nutritious or delicious meals and maybe even extra-curricular lessons or activities. Plus the occasional family vacation. However, a quick look at the modern field of developmental psychology tells us that more is going on in childrearing than meets the eye. Adults fill the offices of psychologists and psychiatrists tracing their depressions and anxieties to events that happened two, three or four decades earlier, in the first decade of their lives at home with Mom and Dad. Most of this has little to do with the quality of dinner or t
