Parents

"I made quite a few mistakes last night," one of our new doctors confided to her friends in the Facebook, "but I'll learn. By heart."

I was silent for a moment, nodded to myself, and wrote a few words of encouragement.

How could one begin a new job without making mistakes? I couldn't fathom it. The credo of learning from mistakes is never new, not the least for someone, myself included, who is reading a lot about parenthood. New parents, as I was told, can be very much like new doctors; they all make mistakes in order to learn and survive their first few months.

"You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children?" Bill Cosby had reminded us. "Those who've never had any."