I was touched by this article and have been thinking about my parenting skills since then. I want my children to be normal too...like trimom. I have a very unstructured parenting style. I had no structure at all until the 5th grade when I went to a strict private school. I can't imagine not giving my child bathroom or water breaks. But, I understand the drive to make your child learn the feeling of attaining a goal. I would imagine it becomes habit. I gave up learning entirely in the 6th grade because I was bored to death. My ds10 seems to get the seriousness of middle school and is applying himself much more now. Yet, all of mine seem to give up too easily because of gifted hypersensitivities, etc. Considering (unpatriotic as this might sound) that the Chinese are running circles around us, it makes sense that we push our children harder now. As a society, it seems we have "American privilege" thinking. We are falling behind as a result. All one has to do is look at our standings in science and math. U.S. News and World Report has a few rankings. So, more structure and discipline seems like a necessity in my home. Although, not to the degree exhibited in the WSJ article.
