When I was in high school, I was in an experimental math program. We were never taught euclidean geometry but, instead, concentrated on non-euclidean geometries. Perhaps my math background explains why I seem to have more belief than most parents that parenting is not linear.

Most parents in my suburban, middle-class neighborhood truly believe that if they do the right thing as parents that it follows directly that they will have successful children. If you make your children do their homework, eat healthy foods, and return their library books, everything will be okay. I�m not that sanguine.

As a public defender, I simply may have seen too much. I�ll admit that most of the time the book of my clients� lives seems to make sense. Most of my clients are not the kids of whom it is said, �But he seemed like such a nice boy.� The ones of whom it is said, those with lives with the wrong ending tacked on, still get me though.

I�m never quite sure what to do when their mothers call me. It�s usually the mothers that call. I explain legal procedures and let them cry for a while. I have a high caseload and I need the time but there is something about the misery of the mothers that makes me pause. I doubt they have many other people who will listen to them about this. I remember how ostracized the mothers of the biting toddlers were.

The belief that life is linear must be very comforting�as long as things are going right.

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