How to Land Your Kid (and Yourself!) in Therapy

Interesting article today, from The Atlantic:
"How to Land Your Kid in Therapy" by Lori Gottlieb
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/how-to-land-your-kid-in-therapy/8555/1/

This is a story about how we shouldn't try to shield our kids from everything, that it's counterproductive. And I think it's safe to say that I don't coddle my kids like that. So no problem there.

But the thing that really strikes me about the story is that I find myself, as an adult, relating to it from the point of view of the children in the story. Initially, "Lizzie" reminded me of ... me. I have nothing to be unhappy about. Yet I feel adrift and afraid to trust my instincts in my personal life.

Check out this line of the article: "How happy should she be?" I've wondered this same thing. Except replace "she" with "I." And this line: "Happiness doesn’t always make you feel happy."

No great conclusion here, sorry. This article left me with only questions, no answers.

I take that back. There is one good lesson, at least one good lesson that I was able to extract from the article. It is this quote: "Happiness as a byproduct of living your life is a great thing. But happiness as a goal is a recipe for disaster." - Barry Schwartz, professor of social theory at Swarthmore College.