And all this time, I just thought I was lazy!

Isn't this the most awesome book cover ever? Mommy and Daddy are having cocktails their little darling has thoughtfully prepared for them. My kind of kid, this one! Such a prodigy, mixing martis at the tender age of three. Shoot, I was the ripe old age of 14 when my parents taught me to tend bar for their bridge parties.

Did you hear the collective sigh a couple of weeks ago?? It's the sigh of a million parents realizing the age of "Child-centered Parenting" is over. And I am feeling especially edgy because as a member of the prenatal Mozart therapy-family bed-four or more activities after school-generation of parents I refused to participate. I'll never forget the tsks and pearl clutching because my kids didn't have any after school activities aside from playing with their friends. The horror! Call CPS! In fact, I'm such a maverick when everyone was rolling around in acres of money even if I had wanted to take the effort to shepard two kids between six activities, I couldn't afford them! Like the parents today! W00t!

The pendulum has swung back to the middle. I can freely admit I thought piping Mozart to my fetus was an incredibly stupid waste of time and breastfeeding was boring and a pain in the neck.

The real pioneer in all of this is one of my heroes: Marion Winik. What a sage when she confessed way back in the 1990's she was exhausted by the process of mothering and everything she had to worry about when our mother's had martini'd and Marlboro'd their way to the delivery table.

So let's have a cocktail, let's have several! In fact, Jr can mix 'em up for us and keep 'em coming because it is now the era of the hands off parent! Mothers every where now have permission to let go of the guilt, wooden toys, enrichment classes and organic bananas. Bring on the cardboard box forts, impromptu games and Pop Tarts!

My laissez faire parenting style is now the rage. Boundaries are in.

It's about damn time, don't you think?