On Jul 8, 2010, at 6:03 AM, Jim Sharkey wrote:
On thing the article doesn't seem touch on, particularly in light of how it indicates single parents are worse off, is how much children can be a source of friction in their parents' relationship. It can be hard to be on the same page vis a vis the rules and regulations of your household at all times, and *that* can create some unforeseen problems, IMO. For example, I wish I'd had a camera to take a picture of my wife's face when my aforementioned eldest asked if she could get her hair dyed purple and I said "I don't see why not." I believe in picking my battles. :-)
The article addressed it, though maybe not in as much depth as other aspects of the harder side of parenting:
This is the brutal reality about children—they’re such powerful stressors that small perforations in relationships can turn into deep fault lines. "And my wife became more demanding," he continues. "'You don’t do this, you don’t do that.' There was this idea we had about how things were supposed to be: The family should be dot dot dot, the man should be dot dot dot the woman should be dot dot dot." The money quote of the whole article for me: "They’re a huge source of joy, but they turn every other source of joy to shit." It's not so much that I agree with it, but it's so plainly put. Dave _______________________________________________ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com