When I describe my parenting approach, I say, “Don’t do something to your child that would be unsustainable in an adult relationship. Try giving your sweetheart timeouts, much less spanking them for being bad, and see how long that lasts. You’re going to be living with this kid for decades. Treat them like a person.”

I wasn’t expecting to see someone actually giving their sweetheart a timeout like they’d treat a child, and thinking it’s OK (NOTE: I’m talking about Stanley, not the author). I predict that it will not be sustainable. At all.

This does give a really interesting window into Stanley’s character. He’s comfortable with having lots of power in a relationship, and using it gently-but-paternally. I’m thinking the reason he likes Bruno is that she’s enough of an immovable object that he senses he can’t treat her this way, so he can have an actual adult relationship with her.

(A bit more on parenting, if anyone’s read this far: I (and Alfie Kohn in Unconditional Parenting) see timeouts as a punishment, and see punishing kids as counterproductive relative to the non-punishing means of influence that parents have available. So far I’m really happy with how our two year old is turning out.)