What About Toddler Angst?

A few months ago I was reading this at my mom's house. It really intrigued me. Now you have to pay to get the whole article here. Drat. The Q&A give a basic idea of what Dr. Epstein talks about. Anyhow, it really got me thinking.

"If you look through most of human history or you look at many cultures today, you find that teens spend most of their time learning to become adults. Here, they spend most of their time trying to break away from adults."

..." because I am a parent of four children, and I was raised to believe that young people need to be protected, that they’re inherently incompetent and irresponsible. "

Yah, so.... how do get over that??? If your kid IS trying to break away from adults or IS acting irresponsible. Good grief I'm becoming afraid of teenagers. Just treat 'em like an adult??? We all know it's not that easy. Or maybe it is that easy. Only it's actually very hard.

Sometimes I look at my three year old trying to break away from me. She is only three. Ok yes, she's definitely incompetent in many areas. But you know what? I'm wondering if this whole growing up thing is just more of the same? More intense and more emotionally draining for teen versus toddler. More just trying to be grown up.

I'm reading The Montessori Method right now. More thoughts to come.




**UPDATE** Found the whole article HERE!