GREAT READS → LIFETAKES Issue 845 · January 20, 2021

My Little Stranger

Nurture, not nature, I still firmly intoned. Who they are is up to their parents

My Little Stranger

But I don’t know who he is.

I had once believed children were the result of nurture, not nature. Parents, I was sure, are the main influence in our lives; personality and behavior take shape from our carers’ influence.

I’m the youngest in my family, so while I didn’t have baby siblings, I became an aunt at age 12. I was immediately hands-on, cheerfully babysitting on long Shabbos afternoons while the parents grabbed a delicious nap. I played with the infants, read to them, fed them, sang them to sleep.

Nurture, not nature, I still firmly intoned. Who they are is up to their parents.

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