Here’s the progress: For better and for worse, parents have come to accept that middle-school children have a greater gravitational pull toward their sometimes worrisome future than their cuddly pasts.
That evolution was displayed last week as River Forest parents, still shocked but more accepting, spent an evening talking about what to do when their sixth-grader wound up at a drinking party — or worse yet, hosted one in the basement.
This is all a rude but necessary awakening as parents in Oak Park and River Forest grapple with a teenage population that abuses alcohol and drugs with a greater frequency than is typical.
The conversations continue. The eyes open wider. The imperfect responses get clearer. That’s parenting.