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As I learn this whole parenting thing, I am finding that it is mostly just guessing after collecting data from different sources. I believe this is roughly what an informed decision is. It is interesting how most of life's decisions appear to be just that. Guessing the best way you can. In truth, very rarely have I known what the right thing to do is. The most I can hope for is knowing a reasonable thing to do, given my understanding of the current situation.
From those I have talked to, it seems to be the same way. That humanity as a whole doesn't know what it is doing or what it should be doing. I assume that this mainly holds for most everyone. So when you grow older and can read my letters, I want you to understand that I, like everyone else, am just guessing at everything.
However, even though we don't know what we are doing, we don't like to admit it. From what I can tell by and large humans are ignorant of reality and arrogant about the ignorance. In some cultures, like the one we live in, there is a tendency to talk at great length with as much confidence as you can in subjects you know nothing. I have come to call this the gift of gab. The portrayal of certainty when there is none is misleading. Portraying vague, meaningless platitudes as if they are significant will confuse a conversation and sometimes have detrimental consequences for those that relied on it. This type of speech is prevalent in politics.
It will become evident that I am no exception. So be sure you use your judgment when you evaluate everything I say. It will become apparent that I am very repetitive with very little conciseness and as such difficult to follow. But that is a personal habit of mine, perhaps a bad one at that.
Many times I have struggled to be concise only to find the inherent ambiguity of the language I am using renders my conciseness riddled with misunderstandings. That, coupled with the way language evolves and words change in their meaning, makes conciseness dependent on the condition that the author and reader share the same context. When an author and reader share the same context, a deep understanding can occur with so few words. However, if you don't share the same contextual perspective, then you need to build the context for the reader. This context building, if not done skillfully, makes writing very repetitive and nuanced, and this leads quickly to rambling.
Unfortunately for you, I am a poor writer who rambles. I also tend to talk with confidence to try and justify my reasoning. If I were a skilled writer, I would be able to use a shared innate context. Allowing me to communicate more concisely with you the ideas I want to share. So bear with me, the points I try to make are simple. Still, their implications can be challenging for me to explain, so you will end up having to read volumes of text while I discuss a simple point. But remember the old truism, that everything in the universe is fundamentally simple once you know it.