If a primary caretaker has a negative attitude towards his or her child, it increases the risk that the child will grow up hostile towards others. And it’s not just aggression towards others that results from child abuse; a large number of children raised by abusive parents also harm themselves. This negative behavior occurs when children don’t learn appropriate techniques for handling life’s disappointments. If we aren’t raised with coping skills, we’re much too likely to act “inappropriately” than if we had developed more reasonable approaches. The effect of poor parenting, as reported by Dr. Geoffrey Dahmer in “The Bully Papers,” is that everyone gets the child they deserve.
Rowan Counterintuitive 