Parenting psychologists generally assert that the first three years of a child’s life are foundational. How many fathers become absent in the early stages of infancy only to return bearing gifts and engaging in remedial parenting hoping to catch up on lost years over a series of fun weekends? Gabor Maté explains that children have an attachment need and in the absence of a nurturing adult to attach to, they tend to fill the void with a peer group.
Good grades are overrated. They are not a key to economic success and the emphasis needs to be dropped. It is the equivalent of stating that a gym is the only way to get fit.
Parents turn into ostriches and bury their heads in denial when the word sex is mentioned. In school, they don’t get much either especially not when they still insist on using the butterfly metamorphosis example to illustrate the changes in human sexuality. So they ape, imitate and experiment and the end result is joggers tumbling on youngsters making out in the bushes.