Adults and kids in any family have local and developmental needs. To nurture means "to fill needs." Families vary in how nurturing they are over time. Young kids can't fill their developmental and special needs well without wise, loving adult help. By social custom, we expect family adults to (a) want to learn what their kids need, and to (b) fill them and their own needs well, within their limits.

    Parents who significantly ignore their children's physical, psycholog-ical, mental and spiritual (wholistic) needs are called neglectful. Child neglect is a crime. Paradoxically, laws require no test for parenting knowledge and competence before or after marriage. 

    Neglected kids often grow into self-neglectful adults. Signs of self-ne-glect abound in our culture - obesity, workaholism, unhealthy diets, little exercise, drug dependence, spiritual indifference, too little sleep, etc. Wholistic neglect tends to  pass down the generations until aware adults intentionally break the cycle. Lesson 1 in this non-profit Web site offers a practical way to do that.    

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