Children! Or the Advantage of Being Parents

A psychoanalyst’s encounters and conversations with fathers and mothers who were once children themselves

Children! Or the Advantage of Being Parents amounts to an assertion that can give rise to both astonishment and curiosity in the present day and age, when the prevailing belief points in the exact opposite direction. For being a parent is viewed as a series of difficulties, problems, moments of fatigue and concern, an attitude that underlies practically all the advice and instruction aimed at parents. The “Advantage of Being Parents” is not simply a slogan coined to grab attention amidst all the clamour surrounding the subject matter, but rather a very real, practical advantage that parents obtain from their relationships with their children. It is children who re-invigorate the adults’ role as recipient, who, if listened to and observed outside of accepted outlooks and preconceptions, can formulate an investigation of the adult’s own existence, resulting in benefits both useful and highly advantageous.