Children (esp. small ones) expend significantly more brain power on their parents than the parents on their children (your mileage may vary).
This has certainly not been my experience. I would think this is only true if you are a neglectful parent or have too many children (which is probably the same thing).
Am I correct to read this as “children invest more brain power into their parents than the parents into the children only if the parents neglect the children”? This sounds fallacious.
First it would imply that children that don’t invest more brain power into their parent don’t have neglectful parents which surely isn’t right. The children could try to find other caretakers.
Second if parents have more than two children they have to split their energy more than the child has to split. And this would imply that parents with more than two children were necessarily neglectful which I also can’t see.
Comparing the “amount of brainpower” is silly. It’s poorly defined (“focused attention on”? “time spent considering how to manipulate”?) and are we talking absolute or relative? I’m way smarter than a 4 year old. Most experiences are new to her and she has to consider them individually. I have a vast trove of heuristics at my disposal that she doesn’t.
This has certainly not been my experience. I would think this is only true if you are a neglectful parent or have too many children (which is probably the same thing).
Am I correct to read this as “children invest more brain power into their parents than the parents into the children only if the parents neglect the children”? This sounds fallacious. First it would imply that children that don’t invest more brain power into their parent don’t have neglectful parents which surely isn’t right. The children could try to find other caretakers. Second if parents have more than two children they have to split their energy more than the child has to split. And this would imply that parents with more than two children were necessarily neglectful which I also can’t see.
Comparing the “amount of brainpower” is silly. It’s poorly defined (“focused attention on”? “time spent considering how to manipulate”?) and are we talking absolute or relative? I’m way smarter than a 4 year old. Most experiences are new to her and she has to consider them individually. I have a vast trove of heuristics at my disposal that she doesn’t.