Parenting

More young adults staying home

Paleolithic hunter-gatherers organized in bands that included several families and consisted of 20-30 people, although some were larger. This closeness afforded protection and a survival advantage. When a couple married they usually lived in the band of one of the spouses. Bands included all generations from infants to the elderly. With the advent of civilization and the protection provided, living in nuclear families, or alone, became possible.

Modern life provides vastly greater opportunities for young adults than the Paleolithic era, yet the path to those opportunities is predictable. For the typical boomer it included high school, college or a job, marriage and having children. Moving out of the family home was a mark of adulthood. However, more recently, many young adults are staying home.

Paleo parenting

Image adapted from Notra Dame Symposium poster.Are you a Paleo parent? Do you frequently carry your infant, provide hours of unstructured play, positive touch, and spread child rearing among caregivers in your family group?  Does this type of child rearing develop better-adjusted and more empathetic children? Darcia F. Narvaez, Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Notra Dame and specialist on the moral development of children, thinks so. At a recent symposium, Human Nature and Early Experience: Addressing the “Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness,” Dr. Narvaez presented her and co-author Tracy Gleason’s views in the presentation Early Experience, Moral Development and Human Nature.

As Joan Raymond writes for MSNBC: 

While our hunter-gatherer ancestors may not have been big on dental hygiene, they did get it right when it came to raising well-adjusted, empathetic children, says lead researcher Darcia Narvaez.