The noise surrounding parenting decisions is deafening. Social media, generational wisdom, my own upbringing, my wife’s, the rotating cast of expert opinions — all of it conspires to make even the most ordinary parenting moment feel like a referendum on my incompetence. Yet, for as peeved as I can get with the mundanities of parenting — right now it’s potty training and managing Big Feelings — the toy in the pocket is different because the lie constructed around it is My Bridge Too Far. The habit of knowing the right thing and choosing the wrong thing, then justifying it with a fabrication? Not gonna fly.

Because raising children who understand and value honesty, integrity, and justice as fundamental will grow up to build the kind of society that treats everyone with dignity and respect.