IN MY years as a father, I’ve learned one simple truth: Parenting never gets easier.

If your life coach says there’s a surefire parenting method, tell her she’s wrong. Then ask, “What the heck is a life coach?” If your doctor says the Spock method is certain to work, he must mean Spock from “Star Trek.” There are no earthly parenting guarantees. In fact, if you inject the average parent with truth serum, he will tell you every parent’s deepest secret: We mostly make up parenting on the fly. After all, we don’t really have a choice.

While our cars come with 3-inch thick instruction manuals, our kids arrive buck naked and broke. Our challenge? Feed and clothe our children until we can teach them to fend for themselves.

But parents not only have to be good at teaching. We also have to be good at learning.