I'm afraid the parenting advice to come out of developmental psychology is very boring: pay attention to your kids and love them.

The largest and most powerful computers are still no match for the smallest and weakest humans.

What's it like to be a baby? It's like being in love in Paris for the first time after you've had three double espressos.

If parents are the fixed stars in the childs universe, the vaguely understood, distant but constant celestial spheres, siblings are the dazzling, sometimes scorching comets whizzing nearby.

Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific - this tube squeaks, say, or a squish then a press then a pull causes the music to play. But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

Caring, whether for children or the dying, shouldn't be instrumental. It should be an intrinsic, moral good.

If you just got enough expertise and enough special techniques and read up enough, then you could shape a child into the kind of adult you wanted. There's almost this kind of competitive enterprise. That picture is the picture I think people often imply when they use the word "parenting".