ABSTRACT
Parenting and Childhood Memories is a collection of stories about the ways in which parents’ childhood memories influence their interactions with their babies and young children: the ghosts and magic of our minds. These are intergenerational tales about parents’ childhood experiences that get repeated with their own children. Like photographs and family lore, the memories are handed down from one generation to the next. In the hub of New York City, through a small courtyard lined with ivy, past a large delicately gated window, parents step into a place and time devoted to parents and young children. Through interior white shutters, they peek into a playroom: a dollhouse, wooden trucks, picture books, toys neatly arranged by category, and tiny chairs evoke vague outlines of childhood memories. The fascinating and complex inner world of babies and young children, the meanings beneath the surface of parent-child interactions, and parents’ childhood memories provide clues to the answers.
