“The very best outcome is that our children will end up as decent, independent adults who will regard us with bemused and tolerant affection; for them to continue to treat us with the passionate attachment of infancy would be pathological. Almost every hard decision of child-rearing, each tiny step – Should I let her cross the street? Can he walk to school yet? Should I look in her dresser drawer? – is about how to give up control, not how to increase it; how to cede power, not how to gain it.”
