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Really good
Life
The biology of dads
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<blockquote data-quote="cheryl" data-source="post: 2647" data-attributes="member: 1"><p><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-raising-children-can-change-a-fathers-brain" target="_blank"><strong>The biology of dads - Aeon</strong></a></p><p></p><p><strong>The bodies and brains of fathers, not just mothers, are transformed through the love and labor of raising a child</strong></p><p></p><p>On a hot summer morning in Atlanta a few years ago, I took my then five-year-old son to his swimming lesson. As we walked toward his pool, we passed a smaller, shallower pool where an infant swim class was underway. I was still trying to wake up, but the class was already in full gear and my attention was drawn to a chorus of motherese (the high-pitched, rhythmic, infant-directed speech known more colloquially as baby talk) arising from the class. Parents were standing in a circle inside the pool, holding their infants in front of them, with the instructor in the centre. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the parents were fathers. Some were a bit chubby, with pale torsos reflecting the bright sunlight. They seemed like ideal infant-caregivers: calm, gentle, patient and sensitive. They didn’t seem like men you would go to battle with. In fact, they were the very antithesis of the warriors and athletes – think Maximus, Achilles or Michael Jordan – often associated with a masculine ideal.</p><p></p><p>Were the men in the pool just inherently different, born infant-caregivers? Or did the process of becoming a father somehow transform them so that they became better suited to perform this role? We have known for decades that mothers’ bodies and brains are transformed by the dramatic hormonal <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-pregnancy-is-a-biological-war-between-mother-and-baby" target="_blank">changes</a> of pregnancy and childbirth. Now, new research is showing that men are also biologically transformed by the experience of becoming an involved father.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cheryl, post: 2647, member: 1"] [URL='https://aeon.co/essays/how-raising-children-can-change-a-fathers-brain'][B]The biology of dads - Aeon[/B][/URL] [B]The bodies and brains of fathers, not just mothers, are transformed through the love and labor of raising a child[/B] On a hot summer morning in Atlanta a few years ago, I took my then five-year-old son to his swimming lesson. As we walked toward his pool, we passed a smaller, shallower pool where an infant swim class was underway. I was still trying to wake up, but the class was already in full gear and my attention was drawn to a chorus of motherese (the high-pitched, rhythmic, infant-directed speech known more colloquially as baby talk) arising from the class. Parents were standing in a circle inside the pool, holding their infants in front of them, with the instructor in the centre. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the parents were fathers. Some were a bit chubby, with pale torsos reflecting the bright sunlight. They seemed like ideal infant-caregivers: calm, gentle, patient and sensitive. They didn’t seem like men you would go to battle with. In fact, they were the very antithesis of the warriors and athletes – think Maximus, Achilles or Michael Jordan – often associated with a masculine ideal. Were the men in the pool just inherently different, born infant-caregivers? Or did the process of becoming a father somehow transform them so that they became better suited to perform this role? We have known for decades that mothers’ bodies and brains are transformed by the dramatic hormonal [URL='https://aeon.co/essays/why-pregnancy-is-a-biological-war-between-mother-and-baby']changes[/URL] of pregnancy and childbirth. Now, new research is showing that men are also biologically transformed by the experience of becoming an involved father. [/QUOTE]
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The biology of dads
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