By and large, child psychologists’ big theoretical insights in the twentieth century didn’t occur to them when the macaroni was burning on the stove, the repairman was knocking at the door, and four kids were fighting over an iPad. Their revelations occurred in quiet offices, surrounded by books. Parenting advice therefore tends to be impractically tailored to hypothetical parents who have endless attention and patience, no constraints on their time, and logical, compliant children. That’s not the reality most parents live in.
