Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
How much credit do parents deserve when their children turn out well? How much blame when they turn out badly? This electrifying book explodes some of our deepest beliefs and gives us something radically new to put in their place. Judith Rich Harris explains why parents have little power to determine the sort of people their children will become. It is what children experience outside the home, in the company of their peers, that matters most in the long run.
Many cherished notions - such as the idea that early mother-child attachments set the pattern for later relationships - are tested and found wanting. Harris has a message for parents: parenting does not match its job description. This is a job in which sincerity and hard work do not guarantee success. Through no fault of their own, good parents sometimes have bad kids. There is wise counsel in this book, and relief from guilt for those whose best efforts have somehow failed to produce a happy well-behaved, self-confident child.
