ABSTRACT
Trust always involves vulnerability. In the simplest interpersonal case, the person who trusts risks damage to their own interests, by assuming that the one they trust is both competent to act as expected and motivated to do so in accordance with a shared social norm. This essay focuses on social trust of parents to care adequately for their children. As a vulnerable third party, children are more harmed by betrayed trust than the trusting party. Those who trust accordingly have additional responsibility to learn about reasons that would undermine confidence in the competence and/or motivation of those they trust. After arguing that there is no reasonable alternative to this kind of social trust in parents, the chapter indicates that for trust to be appropriate, a community must have a shared understanding of children's basic needs, the care required to meet them, and the damage done to them if that care is not provided. The community is identified by institutions and practices of funding, monitoring, and legislating children's care, typically found primarily at the local level and functioning best when involving public–private partnerships with shared responsibility for ultimately meeting children's needs.
