Real talk: I’m realizing more and more that one of the hardest aspects of parenting is balancing a parental bias, with hope, the urge for your kid’s highest, craziest ambitions to be realized, and having to put their negative traits in check before they become a lifelong pattern of shooting themselves in the foot. I guess I’m saying the urge to stand up for your kids can sometimes clash with the wisdom to stand up to them, and it can be quite a balancing act.

Anyway, what’s all this hubbub about how the family unit is the foundation of a great country, when it’s obvious that good parenting is the most important, most challenging thing of all?