There Are Some Religious Traditions That View

In Most Of Our Lives, We Are Accustomed To Aiming At Mastery And Control And Dominion- - Over Nature, Over Our Lives, Over Our Jobs, Over Our Careers, Over The Goods That We Buy.

One Of The Ways In Which Parenting Is A Learning Experience And An Opportunity For Moral Growth Is That We Learn As Parents That We Don't Choose The Kind Of Child That We Have.

Markets Are Useful Instruments For Organizing Productive Activity. But Unless We Want To Let The Market Rewrite The Norms That Govern Social Institutions, We Need A Public Debate About The Moral Limits Of Markets.

The Norm Of Unconditional Parental Love, I Think, Depends On The Fact That We Don't Pick And Choose The Traits Of Our Children In The Way That We Pick And Choose The Features Of A Car We Might Order, Or A Consumer Good.

If Parents Are Aiming At Choosing Children Who Will Be Good Athletes, Or Great Musicians, Or Who Will Get Into Ivy League Schools, Or Who Will Be Tall Enough To Make The Basketball Team, Then There Is A Danger That The Life Of The Child Will Bear The Burden Of That Expectation; And The Risk Of Disappointment And The Cost Of Disappointment Will Be Even Higher Than They Are Now, And Even Now They Can Be Considerable.