Raising Baby Coltrane

Slate published an interesting piece on Friday that can basically be boiled down to "why playpens are a great or terrible contraption," aptly demonstrating by referencing arguments on both sides how modern parents looking for basic advice are driven INSANE. And if that won't do it, websites like urbanbaby.com--a resource the writer characterized as mixing "the neurotic firepower of Woody Allen's 1970s oeuvre with the conviviality-tinged-with-hostility of the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars"--will finish the job.

But seriously though, I did time in a playpen and here I was thinking I was creative in part because my parents told me to just please go outside and entertain myself. What about you--did very careful hands-on parenting lead you to where you are today, or can we assure the doting class that they can just chill out and their little Meryl Streeps will turn out just fine on their own?

Now, my parents did schlep me to art classes and violin lessons, so I don't mean to paint them as slackers in any regard (in fact, my dad actually kicked things off by constructing my four-year-old self her very own art easel). But they certainly didn't obsessively hover about or constantly try to "engage" me. Instead I made costumes and choreographed entire musicals in the neighbor girl's basement that no adult ever had tickets to. (And I doubt they felt bad about being kept off the guest list.)