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So, that was parenthood?
Expectations, ambushed by reality. Reflections on 20 years of raising children.
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New parents underestimate the power of society in shaping how they bring up their children, says the writer.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Simon Kuper
It feels as if they were born only half an hour ago, but my enormous twin sons are now 17 and preparing (I hope) for the French end-of-school exams, “le bac”. Come September, they should follow their sister to university in the UK, leaving my wife and me in an empty nest in Paris.
While you’re in the thick of parenthood, it seems eternal. Family life is repetition: the nappies, bedtime stories, football games and thousands of dinners. But as Nicholas Lemann wrote, it’s only a “(long) season of life”, and for us, it’s ending.
