What Makes The Perfect Parent

Things that do and do not matter (pp 154-162)

Matters: The child has highly educated parents

Doesn’t: The child’s family is intact

Matters: The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status

Doesn’t: The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighbourhood

Matters: The child’s mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth

Doesn’t: The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten

Matters: The child had low birthweight

Doesn’t: The child attended Head Start

Matters: The child’s parents speak English in the home

Doesn’t: The child’s parents regularly take him to museums

Matters: The child is adopted

Doesn’t: The child is regularly spanked

Matters: The child’s parents are involved in the PTA

Doesn’t: The child frequently watches television

Matters: The child has many books in his home

Doesn’t: The child’s parents read to him nearly every day.