People still look askance at a kid in the supermarket who's pitching a fit and think the parent is not sufficiently in control or not being sufficiently punitive. That's an issue for a lot of parents as well.

You're your kid's partner, not the person who's pulling all the strings.

You want to teach all kids the skills that are on the better side of human nature: empathy, appreciating how one's behavior is affecting other people, resolving disagreements in ways that do not involve conflict, taking another's perspective, honesty.

School is very demanding these days.

When people are rushed, they're stressed and you greatly increase the likelihood of being punitive and unilateral just because you're trying to grasp control.

Most parents are accustomed to dealing with problems in the heat of the moment.

We never get to see that our kid is capable of solving problems on her own. We never start to build up the faith that they can actually do it.