Were Your Parents Right About Anything?

As unappealing as it sometimes sounds, reexamining your parents’ wisdom can crack open a new world of fear, healing, and clarity.

Visite Éclair (1961) by Dorothea Tanning

As longtime readers of Ask Polly know, I’m not the biggest advocate of trusting your parent’s advice — or anyone else’s advice, for that matter, including mine! A huge chunk of my happiness grew out of a steady determination to trust myself. Most of my satisfaction and my joy at this moment in my life spring forth…