The birth and development of your child's green-eyed monsterScientists recently noticed something that parents have
long known: Babies literally kick up a fuss when someone competes for mom's
attention -- flailing their legs and babbling until her gaze returns their way.
"Look at me!" that cooing, kicking or screeching seems to
say. And that's literally what baby's demanding, says study leader Maria
Legerstee, director of York University's Infancy Centre for Research in
Toronto. "Jealousy is a normal reaction to anyone who threatens a social bond,"
she explains. And few bonds can match the importance of that between parent and
child.
Yet we know that our child must bring his green-eyed
monster under control as he matures -- even as his expanding social life brings
new situations that beckon the ogre forth. Here then is age-by-age advice from
child development experts and parents who've been there.
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