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The Psychology of Everyday Life:Love, Marriage, and the Baby Carriage

Parenting

How important is parent-child attachment?

For many parents, the love they feel for their children is the most intense love they have ever felt. Some parents talk about falling in love with their baby. It is not a rational feeling; it does not come from choice or deliberation. It is a profoundly powerful experience that changes the new parent’s life. From the perspective of evolutionary theory, this blind parental love makes perfect sense. Children are wholly dependent on their parents; they require enormous investments of time, energy, and treasure over many years. If parents did not feel such intense love for their children, they would be hard pressed to make the sacrifices necessary for their children to survive, let alone thrive.



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