Alistair MacLeod

a painting of a father and son in a small wooden boat at sea

The Meaning of Parenting in Alistair MacLeod’s “The Boat”

We are often blind to the disparity between the behavior we instruct and the behavior we model for our children. But even more nuanced are the differences between the behaviors we try to emphasize—our aspirational behaviors—and the ones we try to downplay, which are often even more prominent.