Parenthood is a job whose primary object of attention and action is the child. But parenting also
has consequences for parents. Parenthood is giving and responsibility, but parenting has its own
intrinsic pleasures, privileges, and profits as well as frustrations, fears, and failures. Parenthood
can enhance psychological development, self-confidence, and sense of well-being, and parenthood
also affords opportunities to confront new challenges and to test and display diverse competencies.
Parents can derive considerable and continuing pleasure in their relationships and activities with
their children. But parenting is also fraught with small and large stresses and disappointments. The
transition to parenting is formidable; the onrush of new stages of parenthood is relentless. In the
final analysis, however, parents receive a great deal “in kind” for the hard work of parenting—they
are often recipients of unconditional love, they gain skills, and they even pretend to immortality.
This edition of the Handbook of Parenting presents the many positives that accompany parenting
and offers solutions for the many challenges.