zoekrupka.com

One of the more common pieces of advice given to new dads is to “learn by doing”. Think too much – as several comments to a recent Guardian piece on fatherhood argued – and you risk prejudicing the father-child relationship with ideology, psychological projections or other cerebral mess.

It’s not terrible advice but it rests on a key assumption: that parents emerge into their role the same way behavioural psychologists see their children, tabula rasa. But parents are not blank slates (nor, arguably, are kids). They inherit ideas, techniques and philosophies of parenting well before any “on the job” training starts.

you can read the rest of this article here at the guardian.