the.com/parenting
The only job where the training happens after you're hired.
means The ongoing work of raising a child — feeding, teaching, protecting, and loving them from infancy toward independence.
from Built from 'parent' plus the verb-making suffix '-ing,' turning a noun into an action. 'Parent' itself traces through French to the Latin 'parens/parere,' meaning 'to bring forth or give birth.' The noun is ancient, but 'parenting' as a verb describing the ongoing activity is a modern coinage — it barely shows up before the 20th century, when raising children started being talked about as a skill or practice rather than just a role you occupy.
- verb origin
- Became a verb only in the 20th century
- book boom
- Parenting advice industry exploded post-1946, thanks to Dr. Spock
- universal truth
- Every generation thinks the previous one did it wrong
- actual stat
- Average parent makes 1750 decisions per child daily