International | The rugrat race

Working-class parents are becoming more like middle-class ones

They have adopted their child-rearing habits

|NEW YORK

LIKE MANY children around the age of two, Madison has decided not to do what her mother wants. She will not speak above a whisper. She does not want to read “Big Red Barn”. She will not identify her colours or her shapes, even though she knows them. So, for half an hour, her mother patiently cajoles, persuades, distracts and redirects. “You want me to read to you? What kind of sound does the cow make? Are you going to sing? What’s this?”

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The rugrat race”

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