An 8-year-old yells at his father trying to make him put his coat on, calling him a “control-freak.”  The New York Times cover story from May 23, 2010, “Every Hug, Every Fuss” documents this conversation recorded by researchers from the UCLA, who have been following 32 families for 3 years, videotaping every move.  The dual-earner, multiple-child model of the American family today has its struggles and UCLA has given us a picture of it.  Are parents parenting as seriously as they think they are?  There is an enormous shift in authority towards the child where children’s desires and will are central in the family.  Parenting is not a sociological invention, it is central to God’s design for the world.  Parents are called to be the authority figures who draw appropriate and safe boundaries for their children so that they may be successful later in life.