The School of Life

Once viewed as a kind of long dream that meant nothing and could be forgotten about as soon as it was over, childhood is now conceived of as a momentously consequential period in which the entire emotional disposition of a person will be formed and their chances of a mentally healthy life determined.

We start out knowing only about ‘being loved’. It comes to seem – very wrongly – like the norm.

The relationship is almost entirely non-reciprocal. The parent loves, but they do not expect the favour to be returned in any significant way.