You’re validating every feeling, holding every boundary, and curating a "gentle" childhood—yet you’re still exhausted, second-guessing every move while your child remains unhinge. We’ve traded the simple survival goals of our parents' generation for an impossible standard of constant optimization, and it’s chipping away at our intuition. Pull back the curtain on why modern parenting philosophies often fail real-world temperaments and get a roadmap to move from "performance-based" parenting to a grounded, "good enough" confidence. It’s time to stop trying to be a perfect practitioner and start being the leader your specific child actually needs.

Feeling torn between being the “nice” parent and the one who actually gets stuff done? If you’re exhausted from negotiating bedtime like a hostage situation but still want a real connection with your kid, explore whether a little fear (or at least respect) might actually help. Drawing wisdom from Machiavelli and personal experience, check out how parenting has evolved, where it’s gone off the rails, and what might work better for your own tiny kingdom.

Gentle parenting had good intentions, but is it holding up in real life? Enter FAFO parenting: part natural consequence, part parental survival instinct. What happens when you stop explaining and start letting kids find out for themselves? This article explores the evolution of parenting from the ’80s to now, and what today’s parents are doing when gentle just isn’t enough.