Working as a pediatrician I get to know many children and their parents, sometimes the grandparents and occasionally the great grandparents. There are not many jobs where you meet people spanning so many generations. I see the film of how things have changed in terms of educating children over eighty years. A long time ago parents were not worried about helping their kids develop self-esteem. They did not feel they had to give their children unconditional love. They wanted their kids to be obedient. Not to be spoilt and selfish, not many hugs or kisses, quite a few punishments and spankings (palm of the hand if you were lucky or belt if less lucky). Today’s parents give a lot of hugs and kisses and we all know that a child who was loved will in turn love those around; they criticize little and praise a lot because too much criticism doesn’t help develop confidence in oneself and contributes to depression. Few punishments to avoid later having angry and violent kids. So, the kids I now visit should be a lot kinder, happier and more confident than what their parents were when they were small, and who often were the children I visited 35 years ago when I was at the beginning of my profession. Wrong. Violence, aggressiveness, bullying and depression are on the rise. The way we bring up our children changes considerably from generation to generation but this has no, or hardly no, effect on their children’s character. Unsurprisingly nature does not let itself be swayed by habits or fashions in the way children are brought up.