ABSTRACT
"The course of true love never did run smooth." Directed to romantic love between adults, this observation from Shakespeare's A Mid-summer Night's Dream also applies to parents and offspring. There is even some evolutionary rationale to battles between the sexes, insofar as men and women are different—genetically as well as in their reproductive tactics and strategies—despite the fact that their interests converge in reproduction. But the evolutionary interests of parents and their offspring would seem to coincide perfectly, since parents want their children to succeed, as do the children themselves. The evolutionary genetics of parent-offspring conflict provides a new way to look at this widespread phenomenon known as weaning conflict. The transition from conflict to offspring independence, although rarely smooth, is often accomplished gradually. Maybe this is because parents are selected to minimize the stress felt by their offspring, or because with parent and offspring so intensely engaged in the struggle, neither party can win abruptly and cleanly.
