Parenting tip of the day: Partnership parenting

How do you build a true parenting partnership where there's a balance of decision-making and only a modest amount of resentment over who's been taking the brunt of bedtime or unpacking the dishwasher?

Authors Kyle Pruett and Marsha Kline Prett explore that territory in Partnership Parenting (September 2009): How Men and Women Parent Differently - and Why it Helps Your Kids and Can Strengthen Your Marriage.

The husband and wife team - he a child psychiatrist and she a psychologist and professor of social work - emphasize the importance of investing in the couple relationship.

We've all heard before that nag about setting aside time for date night, sending sweet little emails, etc. It's a lot easier to say than do. With budgets tight and extra-curricular schedules demanding, it's hard to cobble together the time or babysitter money. I'm the last to suggest any of that is easy.

But this little tidbit struck me as something anyone could try:

"Banish talk about logistics for an evening."

Hmm. A whole evening without "Oh, you need to pick the kids up at daycare tomorrow," or "Did you talk to your mother about Christmas?" 

That sounds do-able. And kind of nice.