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I know, I'm the renegade - I'm used to being the one who sends startling ideas out to others, ideas that upend stable ideas about parenting. But it's nice to be on the receiving end sometimes.

Like many parents, Cheryl noticed that kindergarten options were not good for the kindergarten-aged child. Cheryl's from Columbus, Ohio, and already had her children at SYC (the Columbus preschool School for Young Children that inspired my books It's OK Not to Share and It's OK to Go Up the Slide)

Speaking up when something's wrong. Speaking up directly child-to-child when a child doesn't like something. Speaking up when the culture is at odds with what's good for human beings. Speaking up if something is just plain wrong for life on this planet.

If you ask most adults, they're concerned about kids and the amount of time they spend on screens. That's definitely important, but have you asked kids lately how they feel about their parents' use of screens?

The castle cake just before it was besieged. See the knights in the background. I was just talking to fellow parenting author Jessica Joelle Alexander about the virtues of cake. She's the author of the new book The Danish Way of Parenting, and describes how Danish teachers focus on empathy lessons every week from preschool through age 16, and do it with cake.

Kids often carry real worries about events in the news. Talking can help kids cope. News disasters don't just stay in the news. Children encounter them. When something terrible happens, kids want to know why. We may not think they even know what's going on in the adult world - but you'd be surprised. Kids pick up more than we think.

When grown-ups realized bullying was a big, bad problem, they did what they usually do: they banned it. Zero-tolerance. Automatic suspension. Kids forced to sign contracts to report bullies.

Healthy risk is good. Kids are safer when they know how to cope. My son burned his finger the other day as he was helping me cook. I love it when these things happen. Not the pain, of course. What I love is when kids engage in real life and learn how to cope.

We don't want to play favorites. That's a basic tenet of raising kids. Yet our quest for impartiality can get in the way of recognizing, supporting or celebrating one child. Don't play favorites, that's still true, but kids can handle differences. Life does not have to be equal.

Possibly this: Sexism. Girls discriminated against. Our adult minds leap to what seems obvious. We might sigh and despair: it starts so young, especially in sports. We might speak up and intervene; force the boys to let the girls play.