My wife and I enjoyed almost 11 years of marriage as a childless couple. Our wait was born of some circumstances beyond our control, but mostly it was that neither of us felt ready to take the plunge into parenthood.
We watched friends have kids, made friends with people who already had kids, and made mental note of parenting techniques we would avoid once we had kids.
The main problem we saw was plain laziness. If you’re not willing to get up and walk across a room to redirect a child’s attention from something he or she should not touch, or, God forbid, physically relocate the child, then you probably shouldn’t sign up for this job. Warning a child two or three times and then giving up will not work, and puts him or her squarely in charge of the household. It’s the parents’ (or parent’s) job to meet the child’s needs. Satisfying every want, whether through action or inaction, relinquishes what little control the parents have, and unfairly puts major decisions in the child’s hands.
Also, when a two-year-old’s most skillful motor movement is ejecting a VCR tape and inserting the next one, there’s a problem.




