By Eric Barker of Barking Up The Wrong Tree

2020. Yeesh. I was starting to wonder if the reason we’ve never had time travelers visit us from the future was because humans just aren’t around that much longer.

In the mind-frying insanity of the pandemic, it might seem like the most relevant parenting book is Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” But, truth be told, having kids has always been challenging. Parenting: the job where you must give everything but up.

Little ones and teens can be two different species of terrible. Toddlers perpetually turn the living room into something worthy of FEMA assistance, and the teenage years are a story of joy and wonder and abject stupidity where you get to hear things like “Sorry, mom, the Illuminati ate my homework.”

But to add insult to injury, you just don’t get good advice. So we’re gonna fix that. Time to round up the science on parenting. And I have a handy dandy acronym for you because one word is easier to remember than, well, lots and lots of words.

We’re gonna go with SERVE:

• Self-care
• Emotional Intelligence
• Rituals
• Values
• Empower

Public Service Announcement: No, I don’t have kids. But I took excellent care of my tamagotchis so you can trust me. And if you like your parenting research delivered by someone with a sense of humor best described as “inappropriate with a chance of ruining family dinner” you have come to the right place.

Now I can’t guarantee this will transmogrify you into someone truly worthy of that “WORLD’S GREATEST DAD/MOM” mug but it should prevent you from ending up as the Spencer’s-Gifts-bargain-bin-version of a parent.

Let’s get to it… read more