Newsweek’s recent article, But I did everything right: “DNA discoveries are revealing why even the best parenting doesn’t have the effects experts promise, from breast-feeding to letting kids learn from mistakes” presents genetics as outweighing parenting in the nature versus nurture debate. However, the article closes with wiser, more balanced words:
“In her best-selling book ‘I Feel Bad About My Neck,’ Nora Ephron laments how American society “came to believe in the perfectibility of the child just as it also came to believe in the conflicting theory that virtually everything in human nature was genetic.” Both views—that everything is genetic and that parents can transform a child like a lump of clay—are as wrong as wrong can be.”
There is a story that needs to be told. Genetics do influence - but do not determine - a child’s potential and parents do influence - but do not determine - the course of a child’s life. If perfectibility and determinism are rejected, it is time to chart the course for wise, responsible parenting based on these two assumptions:
- Parents play the most important role in society by nurturing their children.
- The first 5 years are the most important window of child development.
