One thing that would have helped would have been a regular get together to share the good things happening, but also to air how we felt when things weren't going swimmingly.

But of course, none of that occurred for Scottish families at least (can't speak for British families generally). I just don't recall any of that happening.

Despite having an army of kids, my parents never used physical punishment, and I really don't remember that much disharmony, but we were very much left to our own resources to sort out hurt.

It's why I wrote about the table as a metaphor not just for problem resolution, but also to highlight and affirm what was good about our lives.

Parenting is hard, It just is, even when you have resilient kids.