An NPR Science Desk correspondent challenges the misleading child-rearing practices commonly recommended to parents, outlining alternatives grounded in international ancestral traditions that are being used effectively throughout the modern world. When Doucleff became a mother, she found the evidence behind modern parenting guidance frustratingly limited, and the conclusions often ineffective. She turned to parenting strategies from families in three...

An intriguing, sometimes shocking, journey across the world to show how children are raised in different cultures. -- Provided by publisher. Why in some parts of the world do parents rarely play with their babies and never with toddlers? Why in some cultures are children not fully recognized as individuals until they are older? How are routine habits of etiquette and hygiene taught--or not--to children in other societies? Drawing on a lifetime's...