Children -

Last night we spoke about children and how maybe it is time to institute a test people take before becoming parents. It stinks of elitism and yet when I read an article like this, I have to wonder how we protect the innocence and vulnerability of our children. Zach is three and a half now. He lives in both a "real" and an imaginative world, is so sensitive to what goes around him and gratefully is treated with gentleness and kindness, and then, there is this child.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/18/MNJ518R40V.DTL

I am reminded now of a wonderful book, The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
, her memoir of growing up with parents who didn't seem to understand the concept of protecting and caring for their children. I know we can't protect ourselves from pain but it does seem there needs to be some standards set up and again how would we do it. The issues are complex.