When I was pregnant with my first child, I came across an article about “The Little Virtues,” an essay by Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg. It was a breath of fresh air. I’d already gorged myself on parenting advice by reading books on eating, sleeping and first aid. But I longed for something both deeper and broader, a template that cut to the quick of parenting. I found that template in “The Little Virtues,” which begins this way: “As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not…
