One of the most important books I have read in recent years is David Brooks’ The Social Animal (Random House, 2011).
Later, I saw Mr. Books speaking and responding to questions on the weekend “Books TV” feature on CSPAN2. And he said something important: “You don’t have to be a good parent; you just have to be a good enough parent.”
As a family therapist, I often spend time with parents–even marital partners–explaining what is “reasonable” regarding relationships and family life. Since many people I’ve seen, over the years, have grown up in such notably “un-reasonable” families–either families ostensibly “too perfect”–or, more glaringly, anything but.
With respect to parenting, here then is a portion of my book, Balanced Living: Don’t Let Your Strength Become Your Weakness (Wipf and Stock, 2009). This particular passage is from a section entitled “Balanced Parenting,” from the chapter, “Balanced Families.”
