«This was my children operating from their internal loci of control, and speaking from their hearts. Eli's "sorry" was unprompted, and it wasn't even the main event. The boys proved that the less instruction from me, the better. Nelsen says this shows the value of another strategy she advocates: the weekly family meeting, in which disputes become agenda items to be written up on a list on the refrigerator when they can't be resolved easily otherwise. She says that reduced fighting in her family by 80 percent. I'd take half of that result and call it a wild success. Maybe Simon will bring that idea home from school, too. Or maybe I can work up to offering it myself.»
Emily Bazelon
