Author: Dr. Jim Taylor

Parenting: How to Raise Good (and Safe) Kids These Days

This is a question that all parents ask themselves…constantly. There are no easy answers and, realistically, there is probably not one single answer. The important thing for parents is to at least ask and try to answer the question for their own family.

My wife, Sarah, and I are still early in the game of raising our own two daughters. Though I’m the author of four parenting books and considered a parenting expert, I’m not going to pat myself on the back for my own parenting until our girls have left for college and I have clear evidence that my child-rearing ideas actually work (though, admittedly, even then, it could be my wife’s good genes or just dumb luck if my daughters turn out okay). In the meantime, when I meet parents who have actually gotten the job done and done it well, I like to ask them for some nuggets of wisdom that they believed contributed to raising good and safe kids.

I recently ran into a long-time friend and colleague, I’ll call him Steve Barnes (he asked that I not use his family’s real names). Though accomplished professionally beyond pale, he says that his greatest achievement (in collaboration with his wife, Debra) has been raising his two daughters, Eva and Annie. Now in their early 20s, they have achieved a great deal academically to this point (Eva graduated from an Ivy League school and Annie is currently attending the same), but what is notable about them is that they are simply fine young women: intelligent, thoughtful, engaged, and compassionate, just to offer up a few descriptors. Having known them both since they were young, I can attest to the fact that Steve and Debra did more than a few things right. During our recent visit, Steve was kind enough share his nuggets of wisdom with Sarah and me.