Hi John

While reading a post by Dragan I realized I had not responded to one part of your post to me:

>But btw, have you had kids close together?

Yes, they are young now - 7 and 4.

> did you nurture them well?

I am trying but I know that I am usually coming up short.

>Did they ever pinch and hurt each other gratuitously when tired or bored?

Sometimes but not "gratuitously".

>Was that your fault, then, if their behavior is a result of your upbringing?

When it is sometimes and when young its normal behaviour for children. If it became a lifelong obsession with hurting other people I would need to seriously consider what I may have done wrong, as well as consider other factors. I would not shun my responsibility of them and try to find a place to lay the blame.

I hope that you do not really consider such behaviour in children as some sort of proof that children are "intrinsically bad". Like your example of the child that goes astray and causes their parents grief.

If my children turn out genuinely bad then yes I will accept my role in that outcome. I will accept that in one way or another I have also failed to some degree. I exclude some sort of genetic aberration over which I would, of course, have little control.

And I agree with Dragan's reply to this same post.