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DeBlog: Who's Better At Parenting: You Or Your Parents?

I spent part of my morning explaining to my 5-year-old that I think he gets too many choices. Which makes tonight's Good Question particularly important for me.

Strict versus permissive parenting? The way our parents were or the way parents today are? Are we better parents today than our parents were?

Esme Murphy put this question in our minds because of her latest blog entry. A Yale University professor is bragging about being an amazing mother because she never lets her kids do anything, essentially, other than study, get A's in school and play the piano or violin.

No sleepovers, no TV, no video games, no choices.

Back to what I was talking to Seth about -- choices. He gets to make a lot of choices: minor stuff, usually. Which of these things sounds good for dinner? Bowling or a movie? TV Wednesday or Wii Wednesday? But because of those choices, he seems to think he should have a choice on everything.

Which takes us back to the original question: Who is the better parent -- the parents of the 1960s or the parents of today?

Share your thoughts in the comments (knowing that we're generalizing here and really talking more about strict versus permissive parenting). We'll use them on TV tonight at 10!

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