Of course the thoughts and awareness are there, but it's all incomplete and often fanciful - kids know there's something to know, and they fill in a bunch of the blanks with their imaginations if their parents haven't had the conversations and/or established themselves as sources of information. It's rare that the kids know nothing at all, and the somethings they do know are often only partially right or flat-out wrong.

All of us assign different values to things, and not all of those values are going to line up with others'.

Waiting for someone to propose to you only passes the "Really, it's tradition!" sniff test when both of you think it's the man's job to propose and both of you think that's awesome.

Unfortunately, I think the expectation is that birthday girls don't pay.

If you take the time to listen to an upset child's story with empathy, and guide the child toward figuring out the root of the problem, then the result is often that the child not only calms down, but also in the future is less likely to get so upset.

Moving is hard. Staying is easy. Logistically speaking, at least. And this is true whether you're doing or undoing something.

When in doubt, respond to what you witness, not what you hear secondhand.