parents and their kids

Like you, there's something about the innocence of children that so quickly shifts into a wholly more complex and confusing animal called an adolescent. Yet as a parent, and as a researcher of kids and culture, beneath this confusion and complexity there is a naive optimism that shows itself in those late-night talks, or bursts of free and unfiltered childlike laughter. When children - not just our kids, but all kids - get a little older, and a bit more separate and guarded, it is so easy for us to believe the outside is the whole picture. We can't be fooled. Every one is desperately on the quest to find someone who truly and unselfishly cares for them. Every one...