Do you know a family that seems to have perfect children? You may be observing the parents' wonderful work and achievements.

However, if you do look harder (and I certainly am not recommending this - it is none of your business) then you are likely to find that the situation is different from what you had expected.

Solomon, the wisest of all men, wrote about "zeh le'umat zeh" - opposites.

He was right, of course.

That means that when you see a perfect family, you will also find its opposite. You will find contradictions and negative issues. You will find bad things that might arguably balance out the good.

Of course, an outsider does not usually see these skeletons in that family's closet.

Perfection

In other words, there is no such thing as a perfect family.

True, there are average families in which the good and the bad are not extremes, and you may observe a reflection of the norm for that location, region, and socioeconomic group.

However, a perfect child or family represents an extreme, with a concomitant risk. Although you do want to strive for perfection, remember that the positive extreme has an equal and opposite (negative) extreme.

Newton would be proud.