The recent issue of N.Y. Times magazine reports the success of child psychologist Wendy Mogel’s book,The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. The book attempts to countner declining parental attention and deficient parenting methods with wisdom from the Torah and the Bible.
Mogel writes: “Jewish wisdom holds that our children don’t belong to us,”“They are both a loan and a gift from God, and the gift has strings attached. Our job is to raise our children to leave us. The children’s job is to find their own path in life. If they stay carefully protected in the nest of the family, children will become weak and fearful or feel too comfortable to want to leave.”
See the magazine for more.