One bullet stuck out in Mark Patinkin’s latest scattered-thoughts column:

It doesn’t work to seek your kids’ sympathy by saying you had a harder day than they did, because as far as they’re concerned, you’re supposed to.

So true is this that it’s typically a mistake to do the hardship tit-for-tat with one’s children. Better to turn the emphasis around to encourage in them such fortitude as you display every day as an adult.
If anybody figures out how to do that, please let me know.