The More Obsessively We Focus

We're In A Culture Where Everything Is Either Consumption Or Production, So Child Care Is Either A Very, Very Bad-paying Form Of Work Or A Very Expensive Luxury That You Purchase. There Isn't A Good Place In Our Picture Of The World For What Caregiving Is About. Even Teenage Babysitters Have Sort Of Disappeared From The Scene.

People Talked About Being A Parent, Or Being A Mother Or A Father. We Don't Talk About "wiving" Our Husbands Or "friending" Our Friends, Or "childing" Our Parents. We Just Talk About Being In A Relationship With Those People. You Don't Measure Whether Your Marriage Was Good Based On Whether Or Not Your Husband Is Better Now Than He Was 10 Years Ago, Or Whether Your Friend Is Richer Than When They First Became Your Friend. The Relationships Between Parents And Children Is A Kind Of Love, Rather Than A Kind Of Work.

The Brain Is Highly Structured, But It Is Also Extremely Flexible. It's Not A Blank Slate, But It Isn't Written In Stone, Either.

One Of The Most Distinctive Evolutionary Features Of Human Beings Is Our Unusually Long, Protected Childhood.

The Best Scientific Way To Discover If One Factor Influences Another Is To Do A Controlled Experiment.