Big Pickles

I think I've linked to a couple of Paul Graham essays before. He seems to have a way of zeroing in on the heart of complex matters.

In Lies We Tell Our Kids, he doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, but he presents it in a straightforward manner that can sometimes be unnerving. As a parent, it really gets me thinking about the influence I can have in shaping my kids' view of the world.

I especially liked the last footnote. It's amazing how early teenagers begin lying to their parents for the same reasons their parents lied to them just a few years earlier: the truth would freak them out. It's not to avoid getting in trouble, but to spare their parents from knowing things that might devastate them.

Labels: parenting