In a kinder culture, new moms and dads wouldn't be as isolated as many are in our modern, Western world. They wouldn't be expected to negotiate all the demands and stresses of daily life as they begin the most all-consuming, rewarding, confusing, enlightening, important work of their lives.
They would be nurtured and better able to focus on nurturing their young; they would have a functional village... a kinder culture. They'd have ample real life, real time, easy access support (so groups & meetups & virtual links could just be icing on the cake). Community and understanding would be par for the course.
Thinking so much of Tibetan extended-family/friends in recent days (many of whom still live in a thankfully-safe Tibetan Camp in Kathmandu), that "kinder culture" resonates even more strongly. (See links below for Nepal quake aid.)
Having "grown up" in the family-founded International House of Rhode Island with a cultural anthropologist mom, a cook-and-care-for-everyone dad, an Indian/Himalayan art-historian sister, and treasured months of my own in that corner of the world; I was blessed with a kinder, gentler model of parenthood.
The most beautiful thing anyone ever said to us as baby parents? "He's like a Tibetan baby!" (This from my Tibetan "brother", Jampa, whose baby relations I've seen so blissfully held and hugged and sung to and laughed with and passed from loving arms to loving arms.) May we all have such opportunities to pay it forward in a kinder culture for everyone's kids. – Gabrielle
