What would Atticus Finch do?

This is great - and rather timely - The Best Parenting Book You Will Ever Read. (Found at Free Range Kids).

Kate Hunter puts forward the idea that To Kill A Mockingbird has a damn sight more to tell us about parenting than any number of modern parenting books. For example.....

There’s a reclusive man living in your street. Widely believed to have stabbed his elderly father in the leg with scissors. Probably kills and eats cats.

What we do now: Sadly the police can’t do much unless someone found bloody scissors or saw a cat in a sandwich, so the next step would be to get the media to investigate. Then we’d get a petition together to have the man moved. Possibly via a Facebook page. Only then would children be allowed out unaccompanied.

What Atticus did: He told Scout and Jem to respect the man’s privacy. Also, they were not to refer to him by his nickname, ‘Boo’ but as ‘Mr Arthur’. When the kids tried to lure him from his home and were chased by Arthur’s father with a gun, Atticus sided with the old man.

And so much more. It's so very true. And needed by an awful lot of parents. And educators. And everyone in the media. And public officials. And..... well, I'm sure you can add your own.

"Yes Scout, everything is dangerous, nothing is ever your fault and anyone claiming you are anything less than perfect probably needs reporting to the authorities"