The announcement that a Canadian couple had chosen to "keep private for now" the sex  (often referred to as "gender") of their baby Storm launched an avalanche of opinions around the world, a great number of which severely criticized their decision... and their worthiness to parent. As a retired educator and the mother who managed to make PLENTY of errors in guiding her two now-grown sons, I'd like to seek a kinder perspective.

Perhaps we can attempt to understand (though not necessarily ag...

Parenting advice seems to be the a favorite form of advice. Parenting - for those of us with a dominant advisory gene – brings out our soap boxes. For much of my sons' lives, I thought if other parents followed the guidelines that I had used in raising my sons (which were virtually the same parenting styles my parents had used in raising me), their kids would be obedient, trouble-free youngsters.

I can now admit that following both sons' high school graduation, I breathed sighs of r...