Classic, hip, power, sporty, neotraditional, bohemian, Euro, martyr and paranoid. Quick - which one are you? Assuming that you have the means and the time to have a parenting type, that is.

In her book The Perfect Parents Handbook, Jennifer Conlin introduces us to all the stereotypes of parents: the people, she says, who you'll meet on the playground. The parents who she knows well after years of raising her own kids, now 13, 9 and 7 years old. Conlin herself says she's a neotraditional: "since she aspires to "do it all" but doesn't always have the means or the ways." She isn't trying to criticize other parents, she says, only to "take one moment to laugh at yourself and the others around you — who are also taking themselves v-e-r-y seriously." And if you have the time to indulge in this light-and-advice-free parenting book, you probably have the ability to laugh, a bit, at the parent type in the mirror.