If you do not have children

If you do not have children, it will be easy for parents to dismiss you because you “have not experienced what they've experienced.”

• As maddening as this is, be patient and tolerant. It serves no purpose to get huffy.
  
• Take the public tact that it is to the parent's advantage that you don't have children:
  

• You can be objective and dispassionate.
  
• You can be a go-between between the youth and the parents.
  
• You can react to the youth in a non-parent fashion.