Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping

by Robert M. Sapolsky

Now, before I launch into this, I have to issue a warning to anyone who is a parent, or who plans to be a parent, or who had parents. There’s nothing like parenthood to make you really neurotic, as you worry about the consequences of your every act, thought, or omission. I have young children, and here are some of the heinous things that my wife and I have done to irreparably harm them: there was the time we were desperate to placate them about something and allowed them to eat some sugar-bomb breakfast cereal we’d normally ban; then there was the loud concert we went to when our firstborn was a third-trimester fetus, causing him to kick throughout, no doubt in pained protest; and there was the time we messed up with our otherwise ceaseless vigilance and allowed ten seconds of a violent cartoon to show on the television while we fumbled with the Kumbaya-esque video we were attempting to insert. You only want perfection for the ones you love beyond words, so you get nutsy at times.