Not so many days ago, I wrote about the conversation all America became privy to when a dad asked his young daughter, on NPR, if she had ever been disappointed in him. She told him that yes, she had, and explained that his absence from her life for a period of years was inexplicable and hurtful.

I was moved by this idea of a parent seeking such information from a child. Typically, it is we parents who routinely, perhaps sometimes mindlessly, dish out our approval or disapproval of youngsters' behavior. Perhaps the roles should be reversed once in a while.

I posed the question to my daughter: Had she, I asked, ever been disappointed in me? Her response was painful -- initially because it didn't take her long at all to come up with an instance when I had, indeed, let her down. About two years ago on a weekday morning, she recalled, our puppy had caused major havoc in the house. We were running late for school and work. There were lunches to be made. I'd not quite gotten through a pile of papers I'd brought home from the office. I couldn't find my shoes. I'd had enough. I lashed out, promising her the dog would have to go because she was causing too much work. Of course, I didn't mean it. I love our little Sophie. But angry, tired and frustrated, I let a small matter get the best of me and succeeded in sending a fourth-grader to school in tears. I apologized to my daughter that very morning and reassured her that our pup was a beloved member of the family who would remain so. Yet the damage was done, and an impression made. My daughter remembers the pain, fear and worry I laid on her that day. And so do I.

Just a few days ago, USA Today published an interview with actress Emma Thompson, who wrote the script for the new "Nanny McPhee'' movie, in which she also plays the title role. In the interview. she talked about parenting and how hard it is to get it right all the time. She confided that she tells her own young daughter when she gets it wrong, and promises to learn from her mistakes and try to do better the next time around. Not a bad approach to parenting.