So, I've seen a lot of posts going around promoting parenting author Leonard Sax's new book, "The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups."

I haven't read the book, nor do I intend to, but in one quote I've seen, he states: "Most American parents are completely confused and going utterly in the wrong direction…. There's a collapse of understanding what parenting involves." Whoa… MOST? Sorry, pal, you've already lost me with that blanket statement. Even if you now present me with select statistics and studies, I can't trust that you are presenting anything greater than your own opinion. Kids are fatter today than in generations past? I'd be much more easily convinced this is due to the junk that is so prevalent in food today than due to lax parenting.

I'm sure I'm going to get some flak for this, but who says a return to the authoritarian-style family--which is probably the root cause for the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction that has produced today's supposedly flawed parenting styles--is the answer to all of our children's ills? So what if our kids grow up to be selfish brats who know how to use a smartphone and assert themselves--isn't that the basis of capitalism? Is the human race really going to cease to exist because I didn't make my kid eat his peas and because I actually sat down with him to help him on his piles of homework? Get real. We won't know the effects of today's parenting issues until our kids grow up. However, we do know the effects of parenting past. More on that in a bit.

Now, I'm not advocating the uber-spoiling of children. Obviously, kids need adults who adult most of the time, with healthy boundaries and all that. But every parent has bad days, whether you're a stay-at-home parent or a working parent, like I am. Single parents have it particularly hard, in my opinion. But we all want what's best for our kids. Yet who gets to define what is best? Personally, I'm not convinced of the frightening epidemic Sax warns about, with most parents today being total idiots. In his profession, I guess he gets to see a lot of the problem cases. But I don't actually know anyone who coddles their kids to their hurt on a regular basis. However, I do know plenty of kids from my generation, raised with the hierarchal situation Sax encourages in which the parent is the bad guy all the time, who would be labeled more or less a failure at life today or who have little to no relationship with their parents. If there really is a parenting problem running rampant in the US, I would say to the Sax's baby boomer generation that's so retroactively full of advice: Back at ya. We didn't all get to be like this in a vacuum.

Sax's patients and the odd parent aside, it's not more or better advice that the current generation of parents needs. Heaven knows we are inundated with it, day in and day out, much more so than parents were 50 years ago. And books like this only serve to emphasize the total loss of core family, extended family, and community connection in our day and age. If it takes a village to raise a child, an expert in a distant city isn't the best substitute. But even with the best possible support group surrounding a new parent, unfortunately every kid is an experiment. Face it: What worked with one might not work with another. What works with one family won't work with another family. And times do change.

Instead of one-size-fits-all advice from Tiger Moms and Lion Dads and Leonard Saxes, from which we each pick our favorite and smugly say: Yeah, those other parents are SO doing it wrong, how about we come together as a society? You want someone to listen to your advice? Lead by example. Extend a bit more acceptance to struggling parents. Listen to them. Show some love and concern by being there for friends and family when they need it. Don't contribute to the anxiety complex they're developing due to the massive sludge of parenting advice that comes across social media every day. Honestly, if you're my friend, I don't need any more worry or guilt piled on me because I really wanted a break one day and let my kid watch an extra hour of TV.