Parents always want the best for their children. In this process, there are several resources to teach how a parent can prepare their child for success, tiger parent or free choices. However, science provided a different option, the science that can predict a child’s future from parents’ choices, just like how a simple butterfly leads to a hurricane. There are several forces in the process when a child grow up, every single force could be the critical one, but how can we know? It turns out, research shows that growing up in the same home, or neighborhood doesn’t make children more alike. But it doesn’t make your parenting less important, they are just more likely to develop different types of children, even under the same kind of parenting. Your first child might want to be you in the future while your other child doesn’t. You are flapping your butterfly wings to shape the future of your child.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

 

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