Richard Weissbourd, THE PARENTS WE MEAN TO BE: HOW WELL INTENTIONED ADULTS UNDERMINE CHILDREN'S MORAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

It's a ridiculously long subtitle and sounds pretty negative. But this book, by a Harvard psychologist, is for the most part compassionate, positive, forthright, and insightful. It identifies some of the tensions and difficulties involved in parenting today, and suggests ways to create morally aware children. These are kids who have traits such as the ability to appreciate others (and their differences), to empathize, to recognize their responsibilities to their families and communities, to understand increasingly complicated contexts (as in, looking beyond themselves). While it is not dogmatic, it does offer some realistic suggestions and urges conscious choices about our parenting. I would LOVE other people's thoughts on this one.