blake,
While a parent shouldn’t (first) be a kid’s friend,…
A parent should never endeavor to be a child’s “friend.” The relationship of parent-to-child is much different than the relationship of friend-to-friend. That is, in fact, why we have different words to label the relationships.
Friendship is a relationship between peers with each having equal responsibility towards each other. The parent-child relationship inherently contains significantly asymmetrical responsibilities and authority. Friends have obligations only to one another. Parents have obligations not only to the child but to the rest of society as well. Friends can decide to be quit of one another whenever they wish. Parent and child never truly separate.
The idea that parents should ever think of themselves as their child’s friend is one of the more corrosive and destructive ideas to take root in the last half century.
