Reflecting on his upbringing, Winkler said, “I made a decision when I was 10—and I thought about it every day—that I was going to be a different parent from my parents. One of the most important things in being a parent is seeing your child as who they are, not who you want them to be. If you do that, it solves about two million problems right off the bat.”
Winkler’s parents emigrated from Germany to New York just before World War II. Growing up with undiagnosed learning disabilities, he faced harsh criticism from his parents, who often called him “stupid” and “dumb.” His parents even nicknamed him “Dumm Hund” (dumb dog).
Despite admiring his parents for escaping Nazi Germany and building a new life, Winkler described them as “emotionally destructive,” feeling unheard throughout his childhood. His stepson Jed’s dyslexia diagnosis at a young age led to Winkler’s own diagnosis at 31. “I went, ‘Oh my goodness. I have something with a name.’ That was when I first understood it.” Later, his other children were also diagnosed with dyslexia. “Fortunately, we found out early, but if you don’t catch it early, a child’s self-image plummets, as mine did.”
Each Child is Unique
“I know this now about being a parent,” Winkler says. “Our job is to keep our children as safe as we can and to encourage them to meet their destiny. Each child is an individual. Each child is like baking a muffin. You put a toothpick in to see if it’s done. Each child does it their own way.”