How have I learned so much as a parent and still know less than when I started? It's because so many things you "know" have to be jettisoned along the way to make room for reality. One of the few things I know now is that "My Way or the Highway" is a parenting style that may get you a solo road trip on a lonely byway.

Children and tenagers aren't built for the highway. They are wired to take the back roads, the detours, the walking paths, even. That's how they learn. Just like you can't truly see the country from the Interstate, you can't explore life from Mom or Dad's strait and narrow path. I'm not saying all kids and teens will recklessly off-road it. I just know that if you don't find yourself as a parent on dirt roads and country lanes and heck, even bushwhacking through the jungle, you might want to look around. Are your children doing all that without you while your car hums resolutely down the pristine high road? Are they stuck in the mud on a dirt road to nowhere? Then that's where you belong. Take the next exit and go to them. Tell them, "I will travel any road you travel, I will walk any path you walk, I will fight the hazards and roadblocks with you. I will ride shotgun wherever your navigation takes you. Buckle up. We got this."