Childhood is a fundamental part of all human lives, parents or not, since that's how we all start out. And yet babies and young children are so mysterious and puzzling and even paradoxical.

From an evolutionary perspective children are, literally, designed to learn. Childhood is a special period of protected immaturity. It gives the young breathing time to master the things they will need to know in order to survive as adults.

We don't wife our husbands and we don't child our parents.

What teenagers want most of all are social rewards, especially the respect of their peers.

I'm culturally Jewish but, like most scientists, an atheist: I don't believe there's a God or supernatural world. Buddhism offers guidance on what to do in a world without God: It opines that truly being present in the world‚ experiencing and hanging out with your loved ones, provides all the significance you could want.

Developmental scientists like me explore the basic science of learning by designing controlled experiments.

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