Studies Of Children In Playgrounds With Both

Mothers Tend To Be More Direct. Fathers Talk To Other Fathers About Their Kids More Metaphorically. It's A Different Way Of Communication.

Rather Than Accepting The Drifting Separation Of The Generations, We Might Begin To Define A More Complex And Interesting Set Of Life Stages And Parenting Passages, Each Emphasizing The Connections To The Generations Ahead And Behind. As I Grow Older, For Example, I Might First See My Role As A Parent In Need Of Older, Mentoring Parents, And Then Become A Mentoring Parent Myself. When I Become A Grandparent, I Might Expect To Seek Out Older Mentoring Grandparents, And Then Later Become A Mentoring Grandparent.

We Do Not Raise Our Children Alone.... Our Children Are Also Raised By Every Peer, Institution, And Family With Which They Come In Contact. Yet Parents Today Expect To Be Blamed For Whatever Results Occur With Their Children, And They Expect To Do Their Parenting Alone.

Our Kids Are Actually Doing What We Told Them To Do When They Sit In Front Of That Tv All Day Or In Front Of That Computer Game All Day. The Society Is Telling Kids Unconsciously That Nature's In The Past. It Really Doesn't Count Anymore, That The Future Is In Electronics, And Besides, The Bogeyman Is In The Woods.

This Tree House Became Our Galleon, Our Spaceship, Our Fort Apache...ours Was A Learning Tree. Through It We Learned To Trust Ourselves And Our Abilities.