Thanks

I didn't think too much about the praising children part. In my part of the world I don't think its that big an issue. I do think the lowering of the bar is happening however, which goes hand in hand with the praise. It seems to me we are expecting less and less of kids when it comes to polite behavior in public. I'm not an educator and my oldest is in kindergarten, so I don't have a lot to gauge what we expect of our children compared to my own education. However from the kindergartne level, my kid is getting more in her Kindergarten education than I remember getting in mine. I'm sure this is wildly different depending on the location though, and the fact that I grew up in rural Idaho versus my child growing up in urban Idaho may have a difference.

TV viewing. There was a part in the article which talked about TV viewing being an activity of isolation. I don't agree with that, nor do I think activities in isolation are necessarily a bad thing. My wife and I do all our TV viewing together after the kids are in bed. As our kids bedtimes get extended I hope they will choose to join us. Also reading is about the most isolated activity available, however nobody says its bad. I have 2 tvs in my house. One in the living room and a 2nd in my office. I don't plan on increasing the number. Computers are a little different, since only 1 person can really use it at once. I have 3. One for me, my wife, and one for the kids. I don't plan on ever putting computers or tvs in my kids bedrooms, however this may become increasingly difficult to achieve as technology becomes more mobile.

Re: the gender perception in primary child care, your observation is actually based, I think, in another reality: employability and income.

Not so fast. Employability is certainly a factor in our modern world with ancient roots. However I do think women are better equipped mentally to cope with the needs of young children. Sure kids are resilient, but I was talking about the ideal. On a side note, based on experience, I think women are also better equipped to be professionals than are men. Men are generally better equipped for hard work, but there isn't much of that left outside of construction and farming. This is my opinion in gerealities, but falls apart when applying to individuals, so take it for what its worth.

Your remark about consistency was very good. That is the singlemost hard thing for me as a parent to achieve with regards to discipline, yet I also think its the most important. Kids self esteem and feelings of well-being are dependent on a certain amount of routine that doesn't change. This IMO is far more important than which parent/adult they see on a regular basis.

-Steve G.