My aim is busting myths, not fixing ills

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

September 17, 2009

I’ve been writing this column now for a year and a half and I have a blog about parenting that’s more than three years old. As I feel it necessary to do every so often, I’d like to make the disclaimer that these writings in no way constitute advice. I have little or no idea what I’m doing day to day. I have four kids, yet will leave the parenting advice columns to the experts: those with five kids. Suckers.

I am in the business, however, of dispelling myths about being a parent and about children, such as the “bundle of joy” myth or the “sleeps like a baby” tale. Another common myth is this notion that children know things, usually concerning some sort of weighty issue or upheaval in the home.

“Children seem to know things, they have a sense of what’s going on,” grandmothers will say, as though children are some sort of Jedi Knights using the Force. Grandmothers love Star Wars references … (read more)