After World War II, in the baby boom period, the way of "parenting" changed a lot. The books from Dr Spoke were not the only cause, but added to that. The consequence was that parents felt obliged to be (almost) "always present and fully visible". They tried to "educate", to intervene and to control too much. [I once read a story of a young lady that claimed that she had been educated in "open space" and I though she add been so controled and indroctinated to consider open what for me, at a distance, was probably a very closed space].

Some years after that, the psycologist Bruno Bettelleim wrote a marvelous book with the title "The Good Enough Parent", where he claimed that "perfect parents" are not good for children, because they normally control too much, and try to educate "too much" instead of just "being" and "being there", almost invisibly, except when an advise is requested or needed.

I think the model for "good enough parenting" is the model for "Open Space parenting", that can also be applied on "Open Space Education", as Julie's story just made clear.

"Good enough parenting" or "parenting in the spirit of Open Space" is another point of reflexion I would like to add to the previous ones.

ArturSilva