From Faith's Wisdom for Daily Living by Herbert Anderson and Bonnie Miller-McLemore
pg.42-43
...saying that children are sinful does not inevitably lead to their punishment, even if this is how some Christians have mistakenly interpreted the tradition. Seeing children as fragile moral and spiritual creatures can also potentially enhance adult empathy and accountability. Adults can no longer discount children and their obligations to them by surrounding themselves with picture of cuddly, unblemished, blissful infants. Instead, adults must take the labor of protecting and raising children a great deal more seriously.
...Equally crucial, human error and imperfection is endemic to good parenting. Care of children asks much of us, and there is plenty of failure. What parent hasn't yelled rather than understood, flailed rather than sustained patience, forced rather than invited, and stumbled along in all the other ways adults infringe on the full personhood of a child and damage right relationship with children? Acknowledging this helps discourage the perpetual cultural myth of the perfect parent. The prevalent push in psychology to figure out why children turn out the way they do is paralleled by an obsession in self-help literature and talk shows to perfect children and parenting.
Recognizing the utter reality of sin and failure just might help avert this prominent temptation and renew appreciation of the value of time-tested religious practices of self examination, confession, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and hope as absolutely essential to family life.
Failures are not occasions for despair or unrelenting guilt, shame and punishment. They instead are cause for deeper awakening, remorse, reparation, compassion and formation. Recognizing sin in children and adults allows us to quit pursuing perfection of children or parenting and more readily accept our shortcomings and pursue amends and grace.
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