A.M. Rothbottom: News and Views

So, if a kid is particularly athletic or musically talented, say, no one says…ahh, what a great job of parenting that child those parents did. They say the child was born with that talent. When a child has no talent, say, at sports or languages, people attribute it, again, to the child’s genetic traits. But when a child is, say, quick to anger or perhaps not the most smooth at social skills rarely does anyone—parents, teachers, neighbors—say, oh that child has an in-born challenging personality. They say, what did the parents do? How’d they mess up that child? What did they do to that child? And sometimes, that unspoken and sometimes even spoken criticism and judgment gets old.

So there’s that thing when you’re driving, usually back from somewhere–in this case it was a Napa winery and playground (wine for the parents, park for the kids). And it’s afternoon, and one or another of the kids has fallen sleep in the back, the slow drift-off, the bumpity-bump, the peace of it, tired from the sun, from the running around.

And you get back to 80, and, because it’s a sunny weekend afternoon, it’s all trafficy and stop and go starting in El Cerrito and on through Berkeley. And, then, the trick, as the driver, is to keep moving, steady pace, without ever having to stop so quickly that your kids’ necks jerk forward. So you glide, you watch, you switch lanes, you glide some more, all in the name of not rattling their rest. And the sun is shining. And it’s that thing you do, driving with your kids, back from somewhere.

A sunny February day in Alameda!  And the children are not in school. And the parents? The streets are quiet. Where is everyone today–mountains? Watching Tivo’d Lost episodes? “Working from home?” Sleeping in? Peaceful world we have- enjoy it.